is a Japanese politician. Ishiba is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and is the leader of the ''Suigetsukai'' party faction, and a member of the ''Heisei Kenkyūkai'' faction, which was then led by

Fukushiro Nukaga is a Japanese politician and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1983 and represents Ibaraki's 2nd district."Fukuda Cabinet launched / Changes minimized to reduce impact on Diet business"
, ''The Yomiuri Shimbun'', 26 September 2007. Ishiba served as Director General of the Japan Defense Agency under Prime Minister

Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi (; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a former Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is ...

from 2002 to 2004. He was

Minister of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

under

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from 2007 to 2008 and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries under

Tarō Asō is a Japanese politician serving as the Vice President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2021. Asō previously served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2008 to 2009 and as Deputy Prime Minister of Japan and Minister of Finance from 2 ...

from 2008 to 2009. The LDP lost government in 2009, entering Opposition. In 2012, he sought to challenge Opposition Leader

Sadakazu Tanigaki is a Japanese politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1983 to 2016, as Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006, as President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2009 to 2012, as Minist ...

for the presidency of the LDP, but was defeated by former Prime Minister

Shinzō Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...

. He accepted the position of Secretary-General of the LDP on 27 September 2012. From 3 September 2014 to 3 August 2016, he served in

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

as minister overseeing regional economic revitalization and policies aimed at reversing population decline.

Early life

Ishiba is a native of

Yazu District, Tottori is a district located in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 48,540 and a density of 55.43 persons per km2. The total area is 875.74 km2. Towns and villages *Chizu * Wakasa *Yazu Mergers * ...

. His father Jirō Ishiba was a politician and government official who served as

Minister for Home Affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

, Vice-Minister of Construction, Governor of Tottori Prefecture, and a member of the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...

; his mother was an educator. After his father became the Governor of Tottori Prefecture in 1958, the family moved from Tokyo to Tottori; Ishiba has no memory of living in Tokyo. After graduating from

Tottori University , abbreviated to , is a national university in Japan. The main campus is located in Koyamachō-Minami, Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture. Another campus, the Faculty of Medicine, is located on the Yonago Campus in Yonago, Tottori. History Tottor ...

Junior High School, he studied at

Keio Senior High School is a private boys' high school in Kōhoku-ku, Yokohama, Japan. It is affiliated with Keio University. Overview The Keio High Schools No. 1 (第一高等学校) and No. 2 (第二高等学校) merged into Keio SHS in 1948. its student body was ...

. Ishiba studied law at

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

, graduating in 1979. He entered

Mitsui Bank was a major Japanese bank from 1876 to 1990. It merged with Taiyo Kobe Bank to form Mitsui Taiyo Kobe Bank (MTKB), which was renamed The Sakura Bank in April 1992. Sakura Bank is now part of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). History T ...

the same year after graduation. He left the bank after his father's sudden death in 1983.

Political career

In 1983, Ishiba began his political career by working at the secretariat of the Thursday Club, one of the factions in the Liberal Democratic Party. In 1985, at the age of 28, he 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 the youngest member in Japanese history. Ishiba was appointed as the

to the cabinet of Prime Minister

on 26 September 2007, serving in that post until 1 August 2008. Ishiba was the second person in the cabinet of Fukuda to express belief in the existence of

UFOs An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

after

Nobutaka Machimura was a Japanese politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party.

. To that end he appeared on a Japanese TV program which featured dubbed extracts from the

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television television network, network and flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel owned by the National Geograp ...

's Alien Invasion series in June 2012. Following Fukuda's resignation, Ishiba stood as a candidate for the LDP presidency. In the leadership election, held on 22 September 2008,

won with 351 of the 527 votes; Ishiba placed fifth and last with 25 votes. In Aso's Cabinet, appointed on 24 September 2008, Ishiba was named as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. In 2012, while the LDP was still in opposition, Ishiba again stood for the presidency of the LDP and was narrowly defeated by

. He accepted the position of secretary general on 27 September 2012. Abe re-appointed him to the position after the December 2012 election in which the LDP returned to government. He attracted considerable criticism for his statement in November 2013 that likened peaceful public protests against the new secrecy bill being introduced by his government to "acts of terrorism". He later withdrew the comment. In the September 2014 cabinet reshuffle, Abe moved Ishiba from his position as LDP Secretary General and appointed him to a newly created office of Minister for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy. He was reported to have declined the offer of a cabinet post responsible for the government's upcoming security legislation. In spite of having been a vocal critic of factionalism in the LDP, Ishiba launched his own faction, the Suigetsukai, on 28 September 2015, with the aim of succeeding sitting prime minister, Shinzo Abe. However, with 19 members, excluding Ishiba, it was one member short of the 20 votes required for nomination for LDP leadership. In 2020, following Shinzo Abe's resignation, Ishiba ran for the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party, losing to

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 ...

, placing third overall. Ishiba declined to run in the 2021 Liberal Democratic Party leadership election, instead endorsing

Taro Kono is a Japanese politician serving as the Minister of Digital Affairs of Japan since August 2022. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he previously served as Minister for Administrative Reform and Regulatory Reform from 2015 to 2016 and fro ...

. Ishiba is affiliated to the openly nationalist organization

Nippon Kaigi The Right side up ...

Interest in military issues

Ishiba is known as a "gunji otaku" (military geek) and has a keen interest in military matters. He is known for having a lot of expertise related to weapons systems, legal issues about defense and is also fond of building and painting models of aircraft and ships. Ishiba has repeatedly stated that he believes that Japan needs its own equivalent of the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

to be able to defend its many small islands, in 2010 when he was policy chief for the LDP in opposition, and as secretary-general of the party in March 2013 after the LDP regained government. In 2011, Ishiba backed the idea of Japan maintaining the capability of building

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

s: During the 2013 North Korean crisis, Ishiba stated that Japan had the right to deliver a preemptive strike against

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

. In 2017, Ishiba reiterated that Japan should have the capability to build nuclear weapons, stating that "Japan should have the technology to build a nuclear weapon if it wants to do so".

Personal life

Ishiba is a

Protestant Christian Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

. He was baptised at the age of 18 in the Tottori Church of the

United Church of Christ in Japan The United Church of Christ in Japan (UCCJ; ja, 日本基督教団 ''Nihon Kirisuto Kyōdan'', or ''Kyōdan'' for short) is the largest Protestant denomination in Japan. It is a union of thirty-three diverse Protestant denominations forcibly me ...

. In recent years he has attended the Evangelical CBMC's National Prayer Breakfast. He also visits the

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

graves of his ancestors and worships at the

shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

shrine. Ishiba is known as a "

Otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in ''Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorativ ...

" for military, vehicles, trains and

Japanese idol An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in acting, dancing, and modeling. Idols are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements b ...

. He made headlines when he allowed a Japan Self-Defence Forces' vehicle to be displayed at the Shizuoka Hobby Show, a trade fair for plastic and radio-controlled models. When the Russian Defence Minister visited Japan, he stayed up all night assembling a plastic model of the " Admiral Kuznetsov".

Electoral record

Gallery

Image:Rumsfeld meets Ishiba 15 November 2003.jpg, Ishiba and United States

Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Presi ...

, 15 November 2003. Image:Ishiba and Gates with flags.jpg, Ishiba and United States

Robert Gates Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was originally appointed by president George W. Bush an ...

, 8 November 2007.

References

External links

*
石破茂
アゴラ
石破茂（いしばしげる）ブログ
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ishiba, Shigeru 1957 births Living people Politicians from Tottori Prefecture Japanese defense ministers Ministers of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Members of the United Church of Christ in Japan Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Members of Nippon Kaigi Keio University alumni 21st-century Japanese politicians