Zenkō Suzuki (original) (raw)

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Prime Minister of Japan from 1980 to 1982

Zenko Suzuki
鈴木 善幸
Official portrait, 1980
Prime Minister of Japan
In office17 July 1980 – 27 November 1982
Monarch Hirohito
Preceded by Masayoshi ŌhiraMasayoshi Ito (acting)
Succeeded by Yasuhiro Nakasone
President of the Liberal Democratic Party
In office15 July 1980 – 25 November 1982
Secretary-General Yoshio Sakurauchi
Preceded by Masayoshi ŌhiraEiichi Nishimura (acting)
Succeeded by Yasuhiro Nakasone
Ministerial offices Minister of Agriculture and ForestryIn office24 December 1976 – 28 November 1977Prime MinisterTakeo FukudaPreceded byBuichi OishiSucceeded byIchiro NakagawaMinister of Health and WelfareIn office3 June 1965 – 3 December 1966Prime MinisterEisaku SatōPreceded byHiroshi KandaSucceeded byHideo BoChief Cabinet SecretaryIn office18 July 1964 – 9 September 1964Prime MinisterHayato IkedaPreceded byYasumi KuroganeSucceeded byTomisaburo HashimotoMinister of Posts and TelecommunicationsIn office19 July 1960 – 8 December 1960Prime MinisterHayato IkedaPreceded byHaruhiko UetakeSucceeded byYoshiteru Kogane
Member of the House of Representatives
In office25 April 1947 – 24 January 1990
Preceded by Constituency established
Succeeded by Shun'ichi Suzuki
Constituency Iwate 1st
Personal details
Born (1911-01-11)11 January 1911Yamada, Iwate, Japan
Died 19 July 2004(2004-07-19) (aged 93)Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Party Liberal Democratic
Other politicalaffiliations JSP (1947–1948)JLP (1948–1950)DLP (1950–1955)
Spouse Sachi Hagiwara ​(m. 1939)​
Children Chikako Suzuki Shun'ichi Suzuki
Relatives Tarō Asō (son-in-law)
Alma mater Tokyo University of Fisheries
Signature

Zenkō Suzuki (鈴木 善幸, Suzuki Zenkō; 11 January 1911 – 19 July 2004) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1980 to 1982.

Born in Iwate Prefecture, Suzuki graduated from the Tokyo University of Fisheries in 1935 and was elected to the Diet in 1947 as a member of the Japan Socialist Party, then shifted rightward and joined the Liberal Democratic Party. He briefly served as posts and telecommunications minister and cabinet secretary under Hayato Ikeda, as health and welfare minister under Eisaku Satō, and as agriculture, forests, and fisheries minister under Takeo Fukuda. After the sudden death of prime minister Masayoshi Ōhira in 1980, Suzuki assumed leadership of his faction, and he succeeded him as LDP president and prime minister until 1982.

Early life and education

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Zenkō Suzuki was born on 11 January 1911 in Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, the eldest son of a fishery owner.[1][2][3] He studied at a fisheries high school and went on to study aquaculture at the Fisheries Training Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture. As a young man his political and economic views were influenced by the "cooperativism" of Toyohiko Kagawa.[1][4]

After graduating in 1935, Suzuki worked in several fishery organisations. In 1939, he married Sachi Ogihara, the daughter of the president of a fisheries school.[1]

Suzuki with Dries van Agt in 1981

First elected as a member of the JSP in the 1947 election, Suzuki eventually became disillusioned with the Socialists and his politics shifted rightward. He joined the Liberal Party in 1948, and helped merge it with another right of center party to establish the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1955. He was Minister of Health from 1965 to 1966, and Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries from 1976 to 1977.

Premiership (1980–1982)

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Zenkō SuzukiSuzuki in the Netherlands, 1981
Premiership of Zenkō Suzuki17 July 1980 – 27 November 1982
Monarch Emperor Shōwa
Cabinet Zenkō Suzuki Cabinet
Party Liberal Democratic
Election 1980
Seat Naikaku Sōri Daijin Kantei
Constituency Iwate 1st
← Masayoshi Ito (acting)Yasuhiro Nakasone →
Emblem of the Government of Japan

Suzuki was appointed prime minister following the sudden death of Masayoshi Ōhira, who died of a heart attack during a general election campaign. The sympathy vote generated by Ohira's death resulted in a landslide for the ruling LDP, handing Suzuki the largest parliamentary majority any prime minister had enjoyed for many years. A major scandal erupted in 1982 when South Korea and China objected to the rewording of Japanese school textbooks to minimize the role of Japanese aggression in World War II. Suzuki vowed the changes would not be made to avoid offending Japan's economically important neighbors. This drew the ire of right-wing members of the LDP who believed it the issue to be an internal one and severely weakened his standing within the party.[5] He chose not to run for reelection to the presidency of the LDP in 1982, and was succeeded by Yasuhiro Nakasone.[6]

He served during a period of instability; cabinet members frequently changed, and parties were often split by fractional politics. His diplomatic skills allowed him to chair his party's executive council ten times, winning him support in his early career. Despite his foreign policy gaffes as prime minister, he later helped further foreign relations with the United States, during a 1988 summit with Ronald Reagan.[6]

His government adopted some neoliberal economic policies[7] and advocated and protected free trade.[8]

Personal life and death

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Suzuki's daughter, Chikako Asō, is married to Tarō Asō, who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 2008 to 2009.[9] His son Shun'ichi Suzuki serves in the Diet.

Suzuki died at the International Medical Center of Japan in Tokyo of pneumonia on 19 July 2004 at the age of 93.[10] His wife died in 2015.

From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

  1. ^ a b c Envall 2015, p. 112.
  2. ^ Ueda, Masaaki (2002). Kōdansha Nihon jinmei daijiten. Kōdansha. Shuppan Kenkyūjo, 講談社. 出版研究所. Kōdansha. 鈴木善幸. ISBN 4-06-210800-3. OCLC 50718841.
  3. ^ "鈴木善幸 行政改革に道筋をつけた元首相、死去". Imidas. Shueisha. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  4. ^ "Zenko Suzuki". The Independent. London. 21 July 2004. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  5. ^ Dahlby, Tracy (23 August 1982). "Japan Heeds Criticism On Textbooks". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Zenko Suzuki, 93, Ex-Premier of Japan". The New York Times. 21 July 2004. Archived from the original on 29 March 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  7. ^ "The Burst of Bubble and Political Economy of the 1990s Depression" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2022.
  8. ^ "Japanese Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki Tuesday pledged to promote... - UPI Archives".
  9. ^ Albrecht Rothacher (1993). The Japanese Power Elite. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 50. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-22993-2. ISBN 978-1-349-22995-6.
  10. ^ "Former Prime Minister Suzuki dies at Tokyo hospital, aged 93". The Japan Times. Tokyo. 20 July 2004.{{[cite news](/wiki/Template:Cite%5Fnews "Template:Cite news")}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  11. ^ "Condecorados: Orden El Sol del Peru" (PDF). Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.