Hikosaburo Okonogi (小此木彦三郎, January 26, 1928 - November 4, 1991) was a Japanese politician who served as a member 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 ...

from 1969 to 1991, as Minister of International Trade and Industry from 1983 to 1984, and as Minister of Construction from 1988 to 1989.

Early life

Okonogi was born in a political family in Yokohama and graduated from

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 ...

with a degree in philosophy.

Political career

After serving on the Yokohama City Council, Okonogi was elected to the House of Representatives in the

1969 Japanese general election General elections were held in Japan on 27 December 1969. The result was a victory for the Liberal Democratic Party, which won 288 of the 486 seats. Voter turnout was 68.51%, the lowest since 1947. This was the first general election in Japanes ...

, and thereafter won seven more electoral victories. His Diet posts included Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Transportation, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Chairman of the House of Representatives Transportation Committee. His first Cabinet post came in 1983 under Prime Minister

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 ...

, when he was appointed Minister of International Trade and Industry. In 1991, Okonogi served as chairman of the House of Representatives special committee overseeing electoral reform legislation that would introduce

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

blocs in Japanese electoral districts. He called for the withdrawal of the bill in opposition to the wishes of incumbent Prime Minister

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; Kaifu thereafter resigned. Future 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 ...

served as Okonogi's aide from 1975 to 1987.

Death

Okonogi died in office in November 1991 after a head injury sustained by falling down a staircase in the House of Representatives office building. His seat in the House of Representatives was thereafter assumed by his son, Hachiro Okonogi.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okonogi, Hikosaburo 1928 births 1991 deaths Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Waseda University alumni 20th-century Japanese politicians Government ministers of Japan Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Japanese municipal councilors Politicians from Yokohama