is a Japanese politician who served as the

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The minister is also a statutory member of the National Security Council (Japan), National Security Council, and is nomin ...

from August 2022 until December 2023. Nishimura previously served as Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy from 2019 to 2021. A member of the

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

, he has been a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

since 2003, representing Hyogo's 9th district. Nishimura resigned from his cabinet posts in December 2023 amid allegations of a slush fund involving himself and several other ministers and members of the LDP.

Early life and career

Urmas Paet and Yasutoshi Nishimura 20140131

Yasutoshi Nishimura and Shinzo Abe cropped Yasutoshi Nishimura Shinzo Abe and Taro Aso 20191029

A native of

Akashi, Hyōgo file:Akashi City Hall.JPG, 260px, Akashi City Hall file:Akashi Castle Hitsujisaruyagura.JPG, 260px, Akashi from Akashi Castle is a Cities of Japan, city in southern Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 305,925 in 1 ...

and a relative of Akira Fukida, a former

Minister of Home Affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

, Nishimura graduated from the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

in 1985.The Cabinet / NISHIMURA Yasutoshi / Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy, Minister in charge Economic Revitalization, Minister in charge of Social Security Reform, Minister in charge of Trans-Pacific Partnership
/ref> Nishimura joined the

Ministry of International Trade and Industry The was a Ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of Japan from 1949 to 2001. The MITI was one of the most powerful government agencies in Japan and, at the height of its influence, effectively ran much of Japanese industri ...

in 1985 and graduated from

Graduate School Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachel ...

of Public Affairs,

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

in 1992 while in the ministry. In 2003 he was elected for the first time as an independent after running unsuccessfully in 2000. He later joined the LDP. Nishimura was running for the LDP presidential elections which was held September 28, 2009, and came in third after

Sadakazu Tanigaki is a Japanese politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1983 to 2017, as Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006, as President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2009 to 2012, as Minis ...

, who was elected, and Kōno Tarō. In the 2021 presidential election, Nishimura was the lead sponsor for Sanae Takaishi. Nishimura also served as acting director, Land, Infrastructure and Transport Division of LDP, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Fukuda Cabinet), Deputy Chairman, Policy Research Council of LDP, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of LDP's Shadow Cabinet, Senior Vice Minister of Cabinet Office. Since September 2019, Nishimura is serving as minister for economic and fiscal policy; economic revitalization; social security reform; the

Trans-Pacific Partnership The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), or Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), was a proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietn ...

; and as minister for

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

response from March 2020 until October 2021. On 8 July 2021, Nishimura announced the government would seek financial institutions "to lobby

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

customers that operate bars and restaurants to comply with government requests to temporarily close" and possibly to withhold loans to holdouts, as well as to request beverage wholesale companies to stop trading with such businesses. The government retracted the policy a day later, however, with the chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato stating "he had instructed Nishimura to be more careful about what he says during news conferences". In 2013, Nishimura has denied the accusation that he used a prostitute during his 2012 visit to Vietnam. In August 2021, Nishimura became the first

Suga cabinet The Suga Cabinet governed Japan under the leadership of Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga from 16 September 2020 to 4 October 2021. The government was a coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democra ...

minister to visit the controversial

Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...

that enshrine the WWII war criminals. The visit was made the day after his remarks urging people to stay-at-home orders during the

Obon or just is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ance ...

season amid COVID-19 Delta surge across Japan. On 1 October 2021, Nishimura announced that Japan will likely becoming a living with COVID-19 endemic phase. Prior to the

Fukushima nuclear accident The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, whic ...

in 2011, Nishimura has stated to push for restarts of more than 10 nuclear reactors. Nishimura said the government will keep its stakes in

Sakhalin-II The Sakhalin-2 () project is an oil and gas development in Sakhalin Island, Russia. It includes development of the Piltun-Astokhskoye oil field and the Lunskoye natural gas field offshore Sakhalin Island in the Okhotsk Sea, and associated inf ...

, one of the world’s largest integrated and export-oriented oil and gas projects, owned by Gazprom, Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi. In June 2022, Nishimura was criticized for hosting on his official website for 10 years a gallery of

street photography Street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within Public space, public places. It usually has the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by caref ...

of women, apparently without their consent, titled "Picture book of beauties from around the world." Nishimura's August 2022 visit to Yasukuni became the first from the Kishida cabinet.

Slush fund scandal

In November 2023, prosecutors began voluntarily questioning members of several factions of the LDP, including the largest faction of which Nishimura was a member, on suspicion of receiving slush fund money in the form of revenues from fundraising parties totaling over that had not been reported in political funding statements. News media reported the following month, citing sources, that Nishimura was suspected to have received unreported payments. On 9 December 2023, it was reported that

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Fumio Kishida Fumio Kishida (born 29 July 1957) is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP) from 2021 to 2024. He has been a member of the House of Representatives in the National Diet ...

was preparing to replace Nishimura in his

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

. On 14 December, Nishimura and several others resigned from their cabinet posts.

Ideology

Nishimura is affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby

Nippon Kaigi is Japan's largest ultraconservative and ultranationalist far-right non-governmental organisation and lobbying group. It was established in 1997 and has approximately 38,000 to 40,000 members as of 2020. The group has significant influence i ...

, He advocates its main causes, which are: the revision of the constitution, the right for collective self-defense (revision of

Article 9 Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article(s) may also refer to: ...

), visits to

.Yasutoshi website
yasutoshi.jp/activity/?id=1253797203
(retrieved Dec 12, 2014)

References

External links