Nobusuke Kishi | |
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岸 信介 | |
Prime Minister of Japan | |
In office 31 January 1957 – 19 July 1960 | |
Monarch | Hirohito |
Deputy | |
Preceded by | Tanzan Ishibashi |
Succeeded by | Hayato Ikeda |
President of the Liberal Democratic Party | |
In office 21 March 1957 – 14 July 1960 | |
Vice President | Banboku Ōno |
Secretary-General | |
Preceded by | Tanzan Ishibashi |
Succeeded by | Hayato Ikeda |
Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency | |
In office 31 January 1957 – 2 February 1957 | |
Prime Minister | Tanzan Ishibashi |
Preceded by | Tanzan Ishibashi |
Succeeded by | Akira Kodaki |
Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
In office 23 December 1956 – 10 July 1957 | |
Prime Minister |
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Preceded by | Mamoru Shigemitsu |
Succeeded by | Aiichirō Fujiyama |
Minister of State without Portfolio | |
In office 8 October 1943 – 22 July 1944 | |
Prime Minister | Hideki Tōjō |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Minister of Commerce and Industry | |
In office 18 October 1941 – 8 October 1943 | |
Prime Minister | Hideki Tōjō |
Preceded by | Seizō Sakonji |
Succeeded by | Hideki Tōjō |
Member of the House of Representatives for Yamaguchi 1st District | |
In office 1 May 1942 – 8 October 1943 | |
In office 20 April 1953 – 7 September 1979 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Empire of Japan | 13 November 1896
Died | 7 August 1987 Tokyo, Japan | (aged 90)
Political party | Liberal Democratic Party (1955–1987) |
Other political affiliations |
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Spouse | |
Children | 2, including Yoko |
Relatives |
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Alma mater | Tokyo Imperial University |
Signature | |
Nobusuke Kishi (岸 信介, Kishi Nobusuke, 13 November 1896 – 7 August 1987) 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 Shōwa era" (昭和の妖怪; Shōwa no yōkai).[1] Kishi later served in the wartime cabinet of Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō as Minister of Commerce and Vice Minister of Munitions,[2] and co-signed the declaration of war against the United States on December 7, 1941.
After World War II, Kishi was imprisoned for three years as a suspected Class A war criminal. However, the U.S. government did not charge, try, or convict him, and eventually released him as they considered Kishi to be the best man to lead a post-war Japan in a pro-American direction. With U.S. support, he went on to consolidate the Japanese conservative camp against perceived threats from the Japan Socialist Party in the 1950s. Kishi was instrumental in the formation of the powerful Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) through a merger of smaller conservative parties in 1955, and thus is credited with being a key player in the initiation of the "1955 System", the extended period during which the LDP was the overwhelmingly dominant political party in Japan.[3][4]
As prime minister, Kishi's mishandling of the 1960 revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty led to the massive 1960 Anpo protests, which were the largest protests in Japan's modern history and which forced him to resign in disgrace.[5]
Kishi was the first prime minister from the Satō–Kishi–Abe family. His younger brother, Eisaku Satō, was also a prime minister. Kishi was the maternal grandfather of Shinzo Abe, twice prime minister, and defense minister Nobuo Kishi.[6]