(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 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 ...

Early life and education

Tamura was born in Matsuzaka,

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture to ...

, in 1924. In 1950, he received a law degree from

Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...

Career and activities

Tamura was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He was first elected to the

in 1955. In the party Tamura was one of the leaders of the Interparty Relations Committee and belonged to the faction led by

Kakuei Tanaka was a Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives from 1947 Japanese general election, 1947 to 1990 Japanese general election, 1990, and was Prime Minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. After ...

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

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

. Tamura served as minister of international trade and industry from 1986 to 1988 in the cabinets led by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier 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. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Yasuhiro Nakasone was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 1982 to 1987. He was a member of the House of Representatives for more than 50 years. He was best known for pushing through the ...

and then by

Noboru Takeshita was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1987 to 1989 during the bubble economy. Takeshita led the largest faction at the time in the Liberal Democratic Party, which he inherited from Kakuei Tanaka, from the 1980s u ...

. When he was in office he apologized to the United States for an export violation committed by a Japanese manufacturer. In a reshuffle in December 1988

Hiroshi Mitsuzuka was a veteran Japanese politician. He was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. He represented his party at the House of Representatives from 1972 to 2003. In addition, he served as transport minister, international trade minister ...

replaced Tamura as minister of international trade and industry. Tamura became the speaker of the House of Representatives on 2 June 1989, replacing Kenzaburo Hara in the post. Tamura's term ended on 24 January 1990 when

Yoshio Sakurauchi was a Japanese politician and a significant member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He was speaker of the House of Representatives of which he was a member for 53 years. Early life and education Sakurauchi was born in Tokyo on 8 May 1912 ...

was appointed speaker. Tamura, nicknamed the “wheeler-dealer” in political arena, retired from politics in 1996.

Personal life and death

Tamura was married and has three daughters. His nephew,

Norihisa Tamura is a Japanese politician who served as the Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare from September 2020 to October 2021. He is also a member of the House of Representatives representing Mie's 4th district since 1996. Early life and education A n ...

, served as the

minister of health, labour, and welfare The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. The minister is nominated by the Prime Minister of Japan and is appointed by the Emperor of Japan. Minister Katsunobu K ...

under Prime Minister

Yoshihide Suga is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2020 to 2021. He had served as Chief Cabinet Secretary during the second administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fro ...

. Tamura died of natural causes on 1 November 2014 at age 90.

References

External links

* , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Tamura, Hajime 20th-century Japanese politicians 1924 births 2014 deaths Government ministers of Japan Keio University alumni Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) People from Matsusaka, Mie Speakers of the House of Representatives (Japan) Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians