Hajime Tamura

Hajime Tamura
田村 元
Tamura in 1986
Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office
2 June 1989 – 24 January 1990
MonarchAkihito
Preceded byKenzaburo Hara
Succeeded byYoshio Sakurauchi
Minister of International Trade and Industry
In office
22 July 1986 – 27 December 1988
Prime MinisterYasuhiro Nakasone
Noboru Takeshita
Preceded byMichio Watanabe
Succeeded byHiroshi Mitsuzuka
Minister of Transport
In office
14 December 1976 – 28 November 1977
Prime MinisterTakeo Fukuda
Preceded byHirohide Ishida
Succeeded byKenji Fukunaga
Minister of Labour
In office
7 July 1972 – 22 December 1972
Prime MinisterKakuei Tanaka
Preceded byToshio Tsukahara
Succeeded byTsunetaro Kato
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
28 February 1955 – 27 September 1996
Preceded byMulti-member district
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
ConstituencyMie 2nd
Personal details
Born(1924-05-09)9 May 1924
Matsuzaka, Mie, Japan
Died1 November 2014(2014-11-01) (aged 90)
Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Political partyLiberal Democratic
RelativesNorihisa Tamura (nephew)
Alma materKeio University

Hajime Tamura (田村 元, Tamura Hajime) (5 May 1924 – 1 November 2014) was a Japanese politician. He held different cabinet posts and served as the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Early life and education

Tamura was born in Matsuzaka, Mie Prefecture, in 1924.[1] In 1950, he received a law degree from Keio University.[1][2]

Career and activities

Tamura was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.[3] He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1955.[1][4] In the party Tamura was one of the leaders of the Interparty Relations Committee and belonged to the faction led by Kakuei Tanaka.[5]

He was appointed labour minister in 1972 and transport minister in 1976.[1][2] As of 1975 he was the chairman of the Committee of Korean Affairs of the Afro-Asian Problems Study Group.[3] In July that year Tamura headed a delegation which visited North Korea and met with Korean ruler Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang.[3]

From 1986 until 1988, Tamura served as Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in the cabinets led by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and then by Noboru Takeshita.[6][7][8] Tamura's brief tenure as MITI minister largely revolved around the Toshiba–Kongsberg scandal, when Toshiba was caught illegally selling machinery intended for the production of nuclear submarine propellers to the Soviet Union.[9] According to then-congressman Duncan Hunter, these noise-reduced propellers meant that the range at which American nuclear submarines could detect Soviet nuclear submarines was reduced by 50%.[10] In the midst of the ensuing scandal, Tamura traveled to the United States at the behest of Prime Minister Nakasone to formally apologize to US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.[11] In December 1988, Hiroshi Mitsuzuka replaced Tamura as MITI minister.[8]

Tamura became the speaker of the House of Representatives on 2 June 1989, replacing Kenzaburo Hara in the post.[12] Tamura's term ended on 24 January 1990 when Yoshio Sakurauchi was appointed speaker.[12] Tamura, nicknamed the “wheeler-dealer” in political arena, continued to serve as a member of the House of Representatives until his retirement from politics in 1996.[13]

Personal life and death

Tamura was married and has three daughters.[1] His nephew, Norihisa Tamura, served as the Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare under Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Tamura died of natural causes in November 2014, at age 90.[13][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "A Perspective of Japanese/Canadian Economic Ties and Japan's Overseas Economic Policy". Empire Club of Canada. 20 June 1988. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Kakuei Tanaka. Chapter 5. Getting Rid of Kaifu". rcrinc.com. Archived from the original on 21 July 2003.
  3. ^ a b c Jung Hyun Shin (Spring–Summer 1980). "Japanese-North Korean Relations in the 1970s: From a Linkage. Politics Perspective". Asian Perspectives. 4 (1): 80. JSTOR 43737946.
  4. ^ "Norihisa Tamura". Kantei. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  5. ^ Yasumasa Kuroda (2005). The Core of Japanese Democracy Latent Interparty Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 101. doi:10.1057/9781403978349. ISBN 978-1-4039-6901-9.
  6. ^ Clyde Haberman (7 November 1987). "Japan's New Cabinet Gets Old Face". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  7. ^ "Japan's longest-serving trade minister". Xinhuanet. 30 September 2002. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  8. ^ a b Karl Schoenberger (28 December 1988). "Takeshita Shuffles Cabinet but Retains Key Ministers". Los Angeles Times. Tokyo. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  9. ^ Wrubel, Wende A. (January 1989). "The Toshiba-Kongsberg Incident: Shortcomings of Cocom, and Recommendations for Increased Effectiveness of Export Controls to the East Bloc" (PDF). American University Journal of International Law and Policy. 4 (1): 241–273. S2CID 155366596. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 October 2015.
  10. ^ Skidmore, Dave (2 July 1987). "Rep. Bentley: None Dare Call It Toshiba". The Associated Press. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
  11. ^ Michael Henderson (1994). All Her Paths Are Peace: Women Pioneers in Peacemaking. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-1565490345.
  12. ^ a b "The National Diet of Japan" (PDF). Secretariat of the House of Representatives. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  13. ^ a b "Former Lower House speaker Tamura dies at 90". The Japan Times. Kyodo. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  14. ^ "元衆院議長の田村元氏死去 当選１４回「政界仕掛け人". Asahi (in Japanese). 4 November 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
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