is the former governor of

Miyagi Miyagi may refer to: Places * Miyagi Prefecture, one of the 47 major divisions of Japan * Miyagi, Gunma, a village in Japan, merged into Maebashi in 2004 *Miyagi District, Miyagi, a district in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan Other uses * Miyagi (surna ...

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 ...

, and currently university professor & political commentator.

Background

Early life and administrative career

Asano was born in the northern port town of Ofunato, Iwate, where his father was a town doctor. His father moved to nearby

Tome, Miyagi 270px, Tome City Hall is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 77,897 and a population density of 150 persons per km² in 27,298 households. The total area of the city is . The area is noted for it ...

and at age 4 to

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

, the prefectural capital of Miyagi. He grew up there until finishing high school. Asano graduated from the faculty of law of

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 ...

in 1970 and joined the Ministry of Health and Welfare. From 1972 to 1974 he was an exchange student at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, Graduate School of Political Science. He returned to Japan until 1978, when he was stationed at the Japanese embassy in Washington D.C. as second and first secretary. The position in Washington lasted until 1980. Back in Japan he worked a number of posts in the Ministry of Health and Welfare and in 1993 he was posted to

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

Political career

A few months after Asano arrived in

, the prefectural governor and the mayor of the city of

were indicted in bribery charges that shocked the population. With little time to prepare he decided to run for the prefecture where he had grown up. He won, and his grass-roots approach to campaigning would carry him two more terms to the position of governor. In 2005 he stepped aside and started a new career as an academic (now professor at

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

and

Tohoku University , or is a Japanese national university located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan. It is informally referred to as . Established in 1907, it was the third Imperial University in Japan and among the first three Designated National ...

) and political TV commentator. Charismatic and good speaker he was encouraged to run for

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

governor in the 2007 Tokyo gubernatorial election. He faced

Shintaro Ishihara was a Japanese politician and writer who was Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of the radical right Japan Restoration Party, he was one of the most prominent ultranationalists in modern Japanese politics. An ultranat ...

, who run for his third four-year term, and several minor candidates. With barely a couple of months to prepare Asano ended up second on that election.

References

http://www.asanoshiro.org/profile/index.htm (Asano Shiro official profile, in Japanese)

External links

Official Website
* https://www.flickr.com/photos/hasekura/sets/72157600013119936/ (Flickr set on Asano Campaign)
Asano Shiro / TV RANKING
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asano, Shiro 1948 births Governors of Miyagi Prefecture Academic staff of Keio University Living people Politicians from Miyagi Prefecture Tokyo gubernatorial candidates University of Tokyo alumni Academic staff of Tohoku University