Zenkō Suzuki

was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1980 to 1982.

Born in Iwate Prefecture, Suzuki graduated from the Tokyo University of Fisheries in 1935 and was elected to the Diet in 1947 as a member of the Japan Socialist Party, then shifted rightward and joined the Liberal Democratic Party. He briefly served as posts and telecommunications minister and cabinet secretary under Hayato Ikeda, as health and welfare minister under Eisaku Satō, and as agriculture, forests, and fisheries minister under Takeo Fukuda. After the sudden death of prime minister Masayoshi Ōhira in 1980, Suzuki assumed leadership of his faction, and he succeeded him as LDP president and prime minister until 1982.

Early life and education

Zenkō Suzuki was born on 11 January 1911 in Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, the eldest son of a fishery owner. He studied at a fisheries high school and went on to study aquaculture at the Fisheries Training Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture. As a young man his political and economic views were influenced by the "cooperativism" of Toyohiko Kagawa.

After graduating in 1935, Suzuki worked in several fishery organisations. In 1939, he married Sachi Ogihara, the daughter of the president of a fisheries school.

Political career

First elected as a member of the JSP in the 1947 election, Suzuki eventually became disillusioned with the Socialists and his politics shifted rightward. He joined the Liberal Party in 1948, and helped merge it with another right of center party to establish the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1955. He was Minister of Health from 1965 to 1966, and Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries from 1976 to 1977.

Suzuki was appointed prime minister following the sudden death of Masayoshi Ōhira, who died of a heart attack during a general election campaign. The sympathy vote generated by Ohira's death resulted in a landslide for the ruling LDP, handing Suzuki the largest parliamentary majority any prime minister had enjoyed for many years. A major scandal erupted in 1982 when South Korea and China objected to the rewording of Japanese school textbooks to minimize the role of Japanese aggression in World War II. Suzuki vowed the changes would not be made to avoid offending Japan's economically important neighbors. This drew the ire of right-wing members of the LDP who believed it the issue to be an internal one and severely weakened his standing within the party. He chose not to run for reelection to the presidency of the LDP in 1982, and was succeeded by Yasuhiro Nakasone.

He served during a period of instability; cabinet members frequently changed, and parties were often split by fractional politics. His diplomatic skills allowed him to chair his party's executive council ten times, winning him support in his early career. Despite his foreign policy gaffes as prime minister, he later helped further foreign relations with the United States, during a 1988 summit with Ronald Reagan.

Personal life and death

Suzuki's daughter, Chikako Aso, is married to Taro Aso, who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 2008 to 2009. His son Shun'ichi Suzuki serves in the Diet.

Suzuki died at the International Medical Center of Japan in Tokyo of pneumonia on 19 July 2004 at the age of 93. His wife died in 2015.

Honours

''From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia''

* Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (July 2004; posthumous)
* Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru (1982)

References

Citations

Further reading

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki, Zenko
1911 births
2004 deaths
20th-century prime ministers of Japan
Liberal Party (Japan, 1945) politicians
Democratic Liberal Party (Japan) politicians
Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians
Presidents of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)
Liberal Democratic Party prime ministers of Japan
Politicians from Iwate Prefecture