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Morihiro Hosokawa (細川 護煕 Hosokawa Morihiro, born January 14, 1938) is a Japanese politician who was the 79th Prime Minister of Japan from August 9, 1993 to April 28, 1994. His coalition was the first non-Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government since 1955.

[edit] Early life

Hosokawa Morihiro was born in Tokyo as the eldest son of Morisada, 5th Marquis Hosokawa, the head of the Hosokawa and titular Daimyo (Lord) of Kumamoto. He is the grandson of former Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. Owing to his birth, he was born a marquis, but lost the title in 1947 at the age of nine when the kazoku, or peerage was abolished by the American occupation government.

He received his LL.B. from Sophia University in 1961. After working for the newspaper the Asahi Shimbun as journalist for several years, he was elected to the House of Councillors of Japan as a member of the LDP in 1971, representing Kumamoto Prefecture.

After serving two terms in the National Diet, he left in 1983 to become the governor of Kumamoto, where he served until 1991.

In 1992, he announced that he could no longer stand the corruption in the LDP and left in order to found the reformist Japan New Party (JNP).

[edit] Prime Minister

In the summer of 1993, in a change very few had foreseen even a year earlier, the LDP lost its majority in the Diet for the first time in thirty-eight years and was replaced by an eight-party coalition government which promised a series of social, political, and economic reforms. Excluding the JCP, the coalition was backed by all of the former opposition parties, which included the newly formed JNP, the Japan Socialist Party, the Japan Renewal Party (Shinseito), Komeito, the Democratic Socialist Party, the Social Democratic Federation, the RENGO and the New Party Sakigake. Hosokawa, one of the major voices in forming the coalition, was chosen as the new Prime Minister.

One of the first things the newly elected PM did was to say what no other Japanese leader, including the Emperor, had said for forty-eight years. In his August 15, 1993 speech at the annual war memorial services, he publicly acknowledged that World War II was a "war of aggression, a mistaken war" and expressed responsibility and condolences to the war victims and survivors, in Japan, its Asian neighbors, and the rest of the world.

On November 6, 1993, he visited South Korea. On March 19, 1994, he visited China, and the two governments signed an agreement of cooperation in environmental protection.

Although his coalition managed to secure passage of legislation to reform the electoral system in 1994, the subject of a long-running national debate, Hosokawa’s run as PM was short lived. Under allegations that he had misused personal funds in the 1980s, he was forced to resign later that year, just eight months after taking office. After his resignation, the coalition was taken over by the Shinseito president Tsutomu Hata.

[edit] Cabinet

[edit] Later political life

Hosokawa joined Shinshinto in 1996, and later moved to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 1998 from which he retired from politics in May of that year.

In his retirement, he has taken up pottery which has been exhibited in Japan and Europe. He is also a special consultant to The Japan Times. Upon his father's death in 2005, Hosokawa succeeded him as the titular Lord of Kumamoto and titular 6th Marquis Hosokawa.

[edit] External links

• Policy speech to the 127th Session of the National Diet August 23, 1993
• Policy speech to the 128th Session of the National Diet September 21, 1993
• Policy speech to the 129th Session of the National Diet March 4, 1994

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