Yasuo Tanaka

For the astrophysicist, see Yasuo Tanaka (astronomer).
For the swimmer, see Yasuo Tanaka (swimmer).
Yasuo Tanaka
田中 康夫
Governor of Nagano Prefecture
In office
26 October 2000 – 31 August 2006
Preceded by Goro Yoshimura
Succeeded by Jin Murai
Personal details
Born (1956-04-12) April 12, 1956
Tokyo, Japan
Political party New Party Nippon
Alma mater Hitotsubashi University

Yasuo Tanaka (田中 康夫 Tanaka Yasuo, born April 12, 1956) is a Japanese novelist and politician. He served as the governor of Nagano Prefecture from 2000 to 2006, became president of New Party Nippon, and has been elected to Japan's legislatures.

Early life

Tanaka was born in Musashino, Tokyo, and moved to Nagano at the age of 8 when his father became a professor at Shinshu University. He initially failed the university entrance exams in 1975 and spent the next year studying in Tokyo to retake them. In 1976 he entered the Faculty of Law at Hitotsubashi University. He received the Bungei Prize in 1980 for his first novel, Nantonaku, Crystal Feeling, while still a student. He graduated in the same year and briefly worked for the Mobil Oil Corporation for three months before leaving to continue his career as a writer. Tanaka married after graduating from university but divorced 11 months later.

Political career

In 2000, Tanaka was elected governor of Nagano Prefecture, a rural prefecture in Japan, standing as an independent without the support of any major Japanese political party. Soon after, Tanaka became a focus of public attention in Japan for policies that represented a radical departure from the priorities of the Japan's bureaucratic establishment.[1] These included his policy of halting dam building, campaigning for environmental issues and abolishing the Nagano Press Club.[2]

These policies were designed to address ruinous public development projects that had left Nagano and many other prefectures burdened by debts. Japan is one of the most heavily dammed countries in the world with more than 3,000 dams and virtually no unobstructed rivers.[3]

In 2002, conservative assemblymen who were upset by Tanaka's challenge to decades of pork-barrel politics forced him from office by passing a vote of no-confidence. But in the ensuing election, Tanaka made a successful comeback, thanks to overwhelming popular vote.[4]

In August 2005, Tanaka formed the New Party Nippon with a handful of reform-minded members of the House of Representatives.

He lost his governor's post in the August 2006 election to Liberal Democratic Party opponent Jin Murai.[5] He regained political office in the July 2007 election for the House of Councillors of the national Diet, the only successful New Party Nippon candidate in the election.[6] In August 2009 he relinquished his seat in the House of Councillors in order to contest the Hyogo 8th district in the House of Representatives general election, in which he defeated Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, who had held the seat for 23 years. He was replaced in the House of Councillors by Makoto Hirayama, who had placed third on the party's ballot in the 2007 election.

As president of New Party Nippon, he served in the House of Representatives of Japan in the Democratic Party and People's New Party parliamentary groups before becoming an independent (in terms of parliamentary group) in 2012. In the 2012 House of Representatives election, he lost his seat representing Hyōgo's 8th district to Kōmeitō newcomer Hiromasa Nakano – before 2009, the seat had been held by Kōmeitō's former secretary-general, Tetsuzō Fuyushiba.[7]

References

  1. ↑ People Power, Time magazine, 9 September 2002, retrieved 10 September 2007
  2. ↑ No more dams, Nagano Prefecture website, 13 November 2001, from Internet Archive: Wayback Machine, retrieved 10 September 2007
  3. ↑ No more dam illusions: The growing success of dam opponents in Japan, International Rivers Network, 2003, retrieved 10 September 2007
  4. ↑ Nagano's Champion of Change, The Japan Times, 4 September 2005, retrieved 10 September 2007
  5. ↑ Ex-minister Murai beats incumbent Tanaka in Nagano gubernatorial race, Mainichi Daily News, 7 August 2006, from Internet Archive: Wayback Machine, retrieved 10 September 2007
  6. ↑ Ex-Nagano Governor Tanaka, Minshuto form alliance in Diet, Asahi Shimbun, 6 September 2007, retrieved 10 September 2007
  7. ↑ Kōbe Shimbun, December 16, 2012: 衆院選兵庫８区　中野氏、「弔い合戦」制す
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