(born February 13, 1926) was a Japanese politician, and the former governor of

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

, in central

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Yoshimura was a graduate of the law faculty at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

. Upon graduation, he worked in the Nagano Prefectural Government Office. In 1971, he became deputy governor, and was elevated to governor in 1980 when the governor at the time,

Gon'ichirō Nishizawa was a Japanese politician and essayist. He was born in Nagano Prefecture. He was a graduate of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology The commonly known as TUAT is a Japanese national university headquartered in Fuchū, Tokyo. This univ ...

, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Yoshimura served five full 4-year terms, until October 26, 2000. Yoshimura retired from politics in 2000. Yoshimura served as one of the four Vice Presidents of the

Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee The Nagano Organizing Committee for the Olympic Winter Games of 1998 (NAOC) was the organizing committee for the 1998 Winter Olympics in the city of Nagano, Japan. The committee was established shortly after Nagano was selected as the host city i ...

from 1991 and the Nagano Paralympic Organizing Committee President, when the committees was founded, until its final meetings in February 1999. At the June 15, 1991 97th

IOC session This is the list of International Olympic Committee (IOC) meetings. Olympic Congresses IOC Sessions There has been a session during all Olympic Games except the 1900, 1904 and 1908 Summer Olympics and the 1924, 1928 and 1932 Winter Olympics ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, United Kingdom, Yoshimura was part of the Nagano Olympic Bid committee, where he spoke followed by

Hironoshin Furuhashi was a Japanese Olympic freestyle swimmer. In 1948, he set world records in the 400 and 1,500 meter freestyles at the Japan national championships. Furuhashi and Japan were not allowed to compete at the 1948 Summer Olympics because of Japan's r ...

, president of the

Japanese Olympic Committee The is the National Olympic Committee in Japan for the Olympic Games movement, based in Tokyo, Japan. It is a non-profit organisation that selects teams and raises funds to send Japanese competitors to Olympic events organised by the Internati ...

. In 1998, Yoshimura received the ''Silver Badge'' of the

Olympic Order The Olympic Order, established in 1975, is the highest award of the Olympic Movement. It is awarded for particularly distinguished contributions to the Olympic Movement, i.e. recognition of efforts worthy of merit in the cause of sport. Traditi ...

Gubernatorial elections

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshimura, Goro 1926 births 2007 deaths People from Nagaoka, Niigata 20th-century Japanese politicians Governors of Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics 1998 Winter Paralympics