Jump to content

Kishirō Nakamura

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Kishiro Nakamura)
Kishirō Nakamura
中村 喜四郎
Nakamura in 1989
Minister of Construction
In office
12 December 1992 – 9 August 1993
Prime MinisterKiichi Miyazawa
Preceded byTaku Yamasaki
Succeeded byKozo Igarashi
Director-General of the Science and Technology Agency and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission
In office
3 June 1989 – 10 August 1989
Prime MinisterSōsuke Uno
Preceded byMoichi Miyazaki
Succeeded byEizaburō Saitō
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
12 September 2005 – 9 October 2024
Preceded byYoji Nagaoka
Succeeded byMulti-member district
ConstituencyIbaraki 7th (2005–2021)
Northern Kanto PR (2021–2024)
In office
10 December 1976 – 16 January 2003
Preceded byMulti-member district
Succeeded byYoji Nagaoka
ConstituencyIbaraki 3rd (1976–1996)
Ibaraki 7th (1996–2003)
Personal details
Born (1949-04-10) 10 April 1949 (age 75)
Sakai, Ibaraki, Japan
Political partyConstitutional Democratic
Other political
affiliations
Liberal Democratic
New Renaissance
Alma materNihon University

Kishirō Nakamura (中村 喜四郎, Nakamura Kishirō, born April 10, 1949) is a former Japanese politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Sakai in Ibaraki Prefecture and a graduate of Nihon University, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1976.

After winning 14 elections in a row without a single defeat at the polls, he lost to Keiko Nagaoka in the election of October 21, 2021.[1]

Biography

[edit]

Early life

[edit]

Born in the town of Sakai in Ibaraki, his birth name was Shin Nakamura (中村伸). Both his parents were involved in politics and both became members of the Upper House of the Diet; his father and namesake from 1965 to 1971 and his mother, Tomi Nakamura, from 1972 to 1977. He graduated from Keimei Gakuen High School, a Protestant school in Akishima, Tokyo. In 1972, he graduated from the Nihon University College of Law; prior to graduating, he began working in the office of Kakuei Tanaka, serving as Tanaka's private secretary.[2] Nakamura would later mimic how Tanaka interacted with his constituents and the contents of his speeches.[3]

First election and name change

[edit]

In the 1976 Japanese general election, running as an independent, Nakamura was elected to the House of Representatives for Ibaraki District 3. For the election, he had changed his legal name to Kishiro Nakamura ("Junior"), and thus inherited the support network developed over the years by his father, Kishiro Nakamura ("Senior").[4] Nakamura later joined the Liberal Democratic Party.

Bribery Conviction

[edit]

In 1994 Nakamura became involved in a political corruption case concerning construction companies buying favors from lawmakers, known as zenekon oshoku ("general contractor corruption"). Nakamura was arrested suspected of receiving bribes from the Kajima Corporation.[5] Nakamura left the Liberal Democrats but managed to remain in the Diet throughout several elections by running as an independent while the case was going through the courts. In January 2003 he lost his appeal to the Supreme Court of Japan, his prison sentence was finalized and he lost his Diet seat.[6]

Reelection & Retirement

[edit]

Nakamura was released from prison in January 2004. In the 2005 general election he regained his seat in the Ibaraki 7th district and held unto it until 2021. In the 2021 general election he ran as a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party and lost for the first time in his career but managed to gain a seat through the Northern Kanto proportional representation block.

Before the 2024 general election Nakamura announced his retirement from politics. His son Hayato Nakamura ran in his stead and gained his father's old seat in the Ibaraki 7th.


Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Kano, Mikio (November 2, 2021). "「14勝0敗、無敗の男」なぜ負けた 中村喜四郎氏、奪われた支持層" [After 14 years of invincibility, why did he lose? Kishiro Nakamura's vanishing support base]. The Asahi Shimbun on-line edition (in Japanese). Tokyo. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  2. ^ "田中角栄の"最後の遺伝子"中村喜四郎が沈黙を破った" [Kakuei Tanaka's 'last gene': Kishiro Nakamura breaks his silence]. Shūkan Bunshun. July 7, 2017. Archived from the original on 2014-07-13. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  3. ^ Schlesinger, Jacob (1999). Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Postwar Political Machine. Stanford University Press. p. 116. ISBN 9780804734578.
  4. ^ 畠山理仁 (Michiyoshi Hatakeyama) (2017-11-20). "中村喜四郎という男―オレと選挙と中村喜四郎と"選挙の鬼"との12年戦争(1)" [The man called Kishiro Nakamura: 12-year battle of "me" and "elections" and "Kishiro Nakamura" and "election ghosts" (1)]. BLOGOS. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  5. ^ "Once fallen 'election master' finds new role as party unifier". The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  6. ^ "Former minister halfway to prison". The Japan Times. Retrieved 7 December 2024.

References

[edit]
[edit]
House of Representatives (Japan)
Preceded by
Kanezō Muraoka
Chair, Committee on Construction of the House of Representatives
1987–1988
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Director-General of the Science and Technology Agency
1989
Succeeded by
Eizaburō Saitō
Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of Japan
1989
Preceded by Minister of Construction
1992–1993
Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Youngest member of the House of Representatives
1976–1979
Succeeded by