was a veteran Japanese politician. He was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of

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 ...

. He represented his party at 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 1972 to 2003. In addition, he served as transport minister, international trade minister, finance minister and foreign affairs minister.

Early life and education

Mitsuzuka was born in the town of

Misato Misato may refer to: Places *Misato, Akita, a town in Akita Prefecture *Misato, Gunma, a town in Gunma Prefecture *Misato, Kumamoto, a town in Kumamoto Prefecture *Misato, Mie, a village in Mie Prefecture *Misato, Miyagi, a town in Miyagi Prefectur ...

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 ...

, on 1 August 1927. He first received a degree in veterinary medicine. Then he obtained a law degree 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 ...

Career

LDP career

Mitsuzuka was a leading member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), being a member of the Seirankai. He was also Kokkai secretary. He served ten terms at the House of Representatives. He was first elected to the House in December 1972 from Miyagi Prefecture's No. 3 constituency. He held significant posts in the LDP, including policy research council chairman and secretary general. Mitsuzuka was a member of the Abe faction, headed by

Shintaro Abe was a Japanese politician from Yamaguchi Prefecture. He was a leading member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He served as foreign minister from 1982 to 1986. He was the father of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Early life and ...

. The first head of this faction that occupies the right wing of the LDP was

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. Known for his exploitative rule of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China in the 1930s, Kishi was nicknamed the "Monster of the Shō ...

, who was succeeded by

Takeo Fukuda was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1976 to 1978. Early life and education Fukuda was born in Gunma, capital of the Gunma Prefecture on 14 January 1905. He hailed from a former samurai family and his father was mayor ...

. Abe was the third head of the faction. Mitsuzuka was one of the "big four" in the faction consisted of he,

Masajuro Shiokawa was a Japanese economist and politician. Early life Shiokawa was born in Fuse City (now Higashi-Osaka City), Osaka Prefecture. He graduated from the economics faculty of Keio University in 1944. He founded the Mitsuaki Corporation in 1946. P ...

, Mutsuki Kato and

Yoshirō Mori is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan between April 2000 and April 2001. He was unpopular in opinion polls during his time in office, and is known for making controversial statements, both during and after his ...

. On 20 June 1991, Mitsuzuka became leader of the Abe faction in the LDP, inheriting it after Abe's death in 1991. On the other hand, he and Mutsuki Kato toughly struggled over the control of the faction, resulting in Matsuki's removal from the faction in 1991. His election as faction leader led to the collapse of the solid coalition between the Takeshita faction, led 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 ...

, and Abe faction in the party. The Abe faction was later renamed as the Mitsuzuka faction under his leadership. His faction became one of the five influential factions in the LDP at the beginning of the 1990s. In December 1992, the faction was the largest group in the LDP with 73 members. In 1996, the faction of Mitsuzuka was still the largest one in the party with seventy-four members. The control of his faction was assumed by Yoshirō Mori by 1999. In 1991, Mitsuzuka ran for the LDP president, but lost the election, and

Kiichi Miyazawa was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1991 to 1993. He was a member of the National Diet of Japan for over 50 years. Early life and education Miyazawa was born into a wealthy, politically active family in Fukuyama ...

became the president of the party. In 1994, Mitsuzuka ran for the prime ministership. However, due to the allegations of involvement in the construction scandals of 1994 his bid was not successful. Although he was not charged, criticisms about him became public. Mitsuzuka was appointed secretary general of the party by the LDP President

Kono Yohei Kono may refer to: Geography *Kono District, a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone ** Kono people, an ethnic group in Sierra Leone * Kono, Nigeria, a village in Rivers State, Nigeria * Kōno, Fukui, a village in Fukui, Japan * Kono peo ...

in 1996.

Ministerial career

Mitsuzuka's first ministerial post was the minister of transport in the cabinet 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 ...

. He was in office from 1985 to 1986. Then he was appointed minister of international trade and industry in the same cabinet in a reshuffle on 28 December 1988, replacing

Hajime Tamura (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. Early life and education Tamura was born in Matsuzaka, Mie Prefecture, in 1924. In 1950, he ...

in the post. His term continued until 1989. Mitsuzuka was named the

minister of foreign affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

in June 1989 in the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Sousuke Uno. When Mitsuzuka was in office, he harshly criticised the Japan firms, arguing that they created an image of Japan as "trying to make money like a thief at fire." His term as foreign minister lasted until August 1989. Mitsuzuka was appointed

minister of finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

in the second cabinet of

Ryutaro Hashimoto was a Japanese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 1996 to 1998. He was the leader of one of the largest factions within the ruling LDP through most of the 1990s and remained a powerful back-room player in Japanese politic ...

on 7 November 1996, replacing

Wataru Kubo was a Japanese politician from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and then from Democratic Party of Japan. He served as deputy prime minister and finance minister of Japan from 5 January 1996 to 7 November 1996. Early life and education Kubo w ...

in the post. He resigned from office on 28 January 1998 to take responsibility for corrupt behavior by the officials at the ministry, although he was not personally involved in the incident.

Hikaru Matsunaga was a Japanese the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) politician who briefly served as finance minister from 27 January to 30 July 1998. Early life and education Matsunaga was born on 23 November 1928. He is a graduate of Waseda University's law ...

succeeded him as finance minister on 1 February 1998.

Other positions and retirement

Mitsuzuka served as chairman of the Japan Palau Friendship Diet Representatives' Association. He retired from politics in August 2003 due to health concerns.

Death

Mitsuzuka injured his back in June 2003, leading to deterioration of his health. He died of illness at a Tokyo hospital on 25 April 2004. He was 76.

References

External links

, - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitsuzuka, Hiroshi 20th-century Japanese politicians 1927 births 2004 deaths Foreign ministers of Japan Government ministers of Japan Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Ministers of Finance of Japan Politicians from Miyagi Prefecture Waseda University alumni