Akira Kazami (風見章, ''Kazami Akira''; 1886–1961) was a Japanese politician. He served as Secretary-General of the First Konoe Cabinet (1937-1939)
''Time''. June 14, 1937 and

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

of the Second Konoe Cabinet (1940).

Life

Akira Kazami was born in Mitsukaido,

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

(present-day Jōsō, Ibaraki Prefecture). In 1905, he entered

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

where he joined the honorary school of Sugiura Jūgō. In 1913, Kazami joined Osaka Asahi Shimbun (currently part of

The Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...

) and spent his life working as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for Kokusai Tsushin and The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun. In 1928, he ran as a candidate for the first

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stanc ...

election, but failed. However, in 1930 he was elected for the first time and entered the

Constitutional Democratic Party ) , newspaper = ''Rech'' , ideology = ConstitutionalismConstitutional monarchismLiberal democracyParliamentarism Political pluralismSocial liberalism , position = Centre to centre-left , international = , colours ...

. He joined the

Kokumin Dōmei was a Japanese fascist political party in Japan active in the 1930s. In 1931, Home Minister Adachi Kenzō spoke out strongly in support of the Imperial Japanese Army’s unauthorized incursions into Manchuria and against the diplomatic polici ...

in 1932 but left the party in 1936 to become independent. From no great prominence, he was made Secretary-General of the First Konoe Cabinet in 1937. He had been part of Konoe's think tank, the '' Showa Kenkyu Kai'', for a number of years. He held the position until January 1939. In the 1940 Second Konoe Cabinet, he was Minister of Justice during the second half of the year but resigned after five months in office. After his resignation, he quit his political career to became a farmer. Following the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was

purged In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...

until 1951. In 1952, he returned to politics and was elected to the

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

as an independent. In 1955, he joined the

Japan Socialist Party The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...

. In 1960, he took part in the Anpo protests.

References

1886 births 1961 deaths Ministers of Justice of Japan Kokumin Dōmei politicians {{Japan-politician-stub