was a Japanese politician who served two terms as foreign minister and as labour minister.
Early life and education
Hailing from
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 ...
, Kosaka was born into a politician family on 23 January 1912.
His grandfather, Zennosuke Kosaka, was the founder of the daily ''Shinano Mainichi'' and a politician. His father, Junzo Kosaka, was also a politician. His younger brother, Tokusaburo Kosaka, was a leading politician of the
Liberal Democratic Party. Zentaro Kosaka was a graduate of Tokyo University of Commerce (present-day
Hitotsubashi University
is a national university located in Tokyo, Japan. It has campuses in Kunitachi, Kodaira, and Chiyoda. One of the top 9 Designated National University in Japan, Hitotsubashi is a relatively small institution specialized solely in social sciences ...
).
[
]
Career
After graduation, Kosaka began his career at the Mitsubishi Bank
was a major Japanese bank that served as the main bank for the Mitsubishi conglomerate/''keiretsu''. It merged with The Bank of Tokyo in 1996 to form The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (now MUFG Bank).
The bank's operations date to 1880, when Mitsubish ...
. Then he worked for Shin-Etsu Chemical
is the largest chemical company in Japan, ranked No. 9 in Forbes Global 2000 for chemical sector. Shin-Etsu has the largest global market share for polyvinyl chloride, semiconductor silicon, and photomask substrates.
The company was named one ...
which was established by his father, Junzo Kosaka.[ Later he joined the Liberal Democratic Party. In the party he was part of the ]Kōchikai
is a leading faction within Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), founded by bureaucrat-turned-politician Ikeda Hayato in 1957. Currently headed by Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, it has produced five prime ministers (Ikeda, Masayoshi Ō ...
faction headed by Hayato Ikeda
was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's GDP in ten years.
Ikeda is also known for repairing U.S.-J ...
.[
Kosaka first became 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 ...
in 1946, being a representative for the Nagano Prefecture.[ He served in the Lower House for 16 terms and held a variety of ministerial posts. On 6 September 1960, Kosaka visited ]Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
, becoming the first Japanese cabinet member to visit South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
since 1945. He was appointed labour minister in the Yoshida Cabinet, and foreign minister in the cabinets of Hayato Ikeda and Takeo Miki
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1974 until 1976.
Early life and family
Takeo Miki was born on 17 March 1907, in Gosho, Tokushima Prefecture (present-day Awa, Tokushima), the only child of farmer-merchant H ...
.
Kosaka's first term as foreign minister was from 19 July 1960 to 18 July 1962. Assuming the post shortly after the massive Anpo Protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, Kosaka's most pressing task was to restore good relations with the United States. Kosaka recalled, "In the immediate aftermath of the Security Treaty riots, repairing US-Japan relations was our single biggest concern." To this end, Kosaka visited the United States several times and helped arrange a summit meeting between Prime Minister Ikeda and President John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
in Washington D.C. in June 1961.[
In August 1966, Kosaka and Yoshimi Furui headed an eight-member LDP delegation to visit China.] They both held the views of right-conservatism, arguing for Japan's independence from the US and normalized relations with China.[ After the visit, Kosaka developed a policy report, called the Kosaka Report, which was submitted to the LDP's policy affairs research council.][
In 1968, Kosaka stated his desire to visit Mongolia to search for the viability of economic assistance towards the country.] In 1970, Kosaka argued that Japan should declare a "no-war" notice in order to reduce tensions between Japan and China. He was also the head of political affairs research committee in the LDP during the same period.[ He also served as the head of economic planning agency during the term of the then Prime Minister ]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 ...
.[ On 24 July 1972, Tanaka also appointed him as chairman of the newly founded Council for the normalization of Japan-China relations in the LDP.] The task of the council that consisted of 312 members was to reach a consensus, since the pro-Taiwan and pro-Peking factions over the whole peace treaty issue emerged in the party.[ IN September 1972, Kosaka visited Pekin as special envoy of the prime minister Tanaka.][
Kosaka was secondly appointed foreign minister in 1976.][ In 1976, he called for a reform of the UN security council at the UN general assembly. At the beginning of the 1980s, he served as the chairman of the LDP's foreign affairs research council. Kosaka retired from politics in 1990.][
]
Personal life
Kosaka's son, Kenji Kosaka
was a Japanese politician.
Biography
Kosaka was born in the city of Nagano in Nagano Prefecture, on 12 March 1946. His father is Zentaro Kosaka, also a politician. Kenji Kosaka received a law degree from Keio University in 1968.
He worked i ...
, is a LDP politician and former minister of education. Kosaka participated his son's election campaign for the lower house in the Nagano district in 1990.
Awards and legacy
Kosaka was awarded the U.N. peace prize in 1982.[ The Chinese restaurant of ]Okura Hotel Okura may refer to:
* Okura Hotels, an international chain headquartered in Japan
* Okura River in New Zealand
* Okura, New Zealand, a village
* Ōkura school of traditional Japanese comic theater
* Okura, Yamagata, a village in Japan
* the Japa ...
in Tokyo was named by Kosaka.
Death
Kosaka died of renal failure in Tokyo on 26 November 2000.[ He was 88.][
]
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosaka, Zentaro
20th-century Japanese politicians
1912 births
2000 deaths
Deaths from kidney failure
Foreign ministers of Japan
Government ministers of Japan
Hitotsubashi University alumni
Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians
Members of the House of Representatives (Japan)
Politicians from Nagano Prefecture