TarÅ AsÅ
Taro Aso (Japanese麻 生 太郎, Asō taro; born September 20, 1940 in Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture) is a Japanese politician and MP in the Shūgiin, the lower house for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP ). Within the LDP, he leads the Asō faction. From September 2008 to September 2009 he was the 59th Prime Minister of Japan and LDP Chairman. Since December 2012, he is Minister of Finance.
- 3.1 Family Tree
Life
Asō is a graduate of Gakushuin University. After several years in the management of the family business Asō for which he was for two years in Sierra Leone, he was Chairman of the 1978 Japan Junior Chamber, an advocacy group for young entrepreneurs.
In the Summer Olympics 1976 in Montréal, he participated as a marksman in the skeet competition, finishing in 41st place.
In 1979, he was elected in fünfmandatigen constituency 2 of Fukuoka prefecture to the House, and since then - ten times re-elected as an MP - since 1996 in single constituency Fukuoka 8. Only from 1983 to 1986, he was not a member of Shūgiin, after he had received only the sixth-highest share of the vote among six candidates in the 1983 election.
Since the early 1990s Asō assumed increasingly senior positions in committees, as Parliamentary Secretary ( seimujikan ) and party committees of the LDP, 1996 Asō was appointed as Head of the Economic Planning Agency for the first time into the cabinet. Under Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichirô he was first chairman of the Policy Affairs Research Council (short: PARC, Japanese政务 调查 会, seimu CHOSA kai ), a key committee of the LDP, then Minister of the Interior from 2003. From October 2005 to August 2007, he was Foreign Minister of his country. In 2006, the Aso Ikōkai that Asō faction, from the Kono Group ( Taiyūkai ) Kono Yohei. 2007 was Asō for a short time LDP Secretary General.
For the first time in 2001 was a candidate for the Asō LDP party presidency, is linked to the usually the premiership. He was defeated, and Hashimoto Ryutaro Jun'ichirô Koizumi. His nominations 2006 compared Shinzō Abe and Yasuo Fukuda 2007 compared were also unsuccessful.
With the renewal of the party and government offices on 1 August 2008, the Prime Minister and party leader Yasuo Fukuda Asō convened for the second time as LDP Secretary General. According to Fukuda's resignation Asō won on 22 September 2008, the election of the LDP chairman with 351 of 527 votes. On September 24, he was elected by the House against the vote of the House of Lords, which voted for the DPJ Chairman Ichirō Ozawa with 337 of 478 votes as the new Prime Minister of Japan.
After the LDP again received the responsibility of government in December 2012, Shinzō Abe took it over as Minister of Finance, Minister for the financial sector and Deputy Prime Minister in his cabinet.
Reign
His term as Prime Minister began with the presentation of his cabinet in the Kantei. The Cabinet consisted of five faktionsungebundene Minister. The key post as Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura received, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone was and the Treasury took over Shoichi Nakagawa. The First Minister, Infrastructure Minister Nariaki Nakayama, came after four days because of statements in his interview to back office. The Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa appeared on 17 February 2009 from his post after he was kicked while G7 finance ministers meeting drunk in front of the press. Overall, the Cabinet lost during ASOS tenure three ministers and four " Deputy Minister " and Parliamentary Secretaries.
Foreign Policy
After taking office Asō traveled on September 25, to his foreign policy debut to New York to address the General Assembly of the United Nations. An important task in the field of foreign policy was the extension of the anti -terrorism law, based on which Japan participates with refueling ships in the Indian Ocean on the Operation Enduring Freedom. It was adopted on 12 December 2008 by a vote in the House by a two -thirds majority to the House of Lords. To this end Asō had extended the session of Parliament by 25 December. Meanwhile, the controversial Iraq use the air self-defense forces in December 2008 ran out. On December 25, Asos announced government plans for a change in the law in order to send Japanese ships to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia can. The necessary legislation was finally adopted in June 2009: According to the interpretation of the government without the consent of Parliament is required for individual anti-piracy missions of the Marine Self-Defense Forces and the use of military force to combat piracy is not contrary as " police act " ( 「警察 行动」 ) against the Constitution. In March 2009, the government had sent a task force on the basis of the Law on Self-Defense Forces that this only allows to protect Japanese ships and nationals.
Relations with the Asian neighbors have since been charged by publishing a revisionist essay by the Chief of Staff of the Air Self-Defense Forces, Toshio Tamogami in October 2008. Tamogami was quickly removed from office and dismissed from the armed forces.
One focus ASOS foreign policy activity were the relations with the Republic of Korea. More than five times he met with President Lee Myung -bak, with closer economic ties and a concerted policy to combat the economic crisis were in the foreground. On a common policy against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea kidnapped because of the nuclear program and the issue of Japanese citizens no concrete agreements were achieved. President Lee explicitly renounced it, an apology for the colonial rule or compensation for the use of Korean forced laborers - demand from Japan - including ASOS family.
Domestic Policy
ASOS domestic political priority was to tackle the economic crisis in the international financial and real estate crisis. Demanded by the opposition elections to confirm his entry into office by the people would have the benefit of achieving this objective, in particular by adopting the regular and supplementary budgets in 2008 and 2009 with extensive economic stimulus programs, moved. On the occasion of a failed application of the Democratic Party in the House of resolution and new elections on 24 December 2008, Asō closed early elections again. The lower house election in 2009 had to be carried out in autumn 2009 at the latest. After the devastating LDP defeat in the parliamentary elections in the prefecture of Tokyo 12 July 2009 Asō dissolved the lower house. The elections on August 30 ended with a clear defeat of his ruling coalition. September 16, 2009 were Asō and his cabinet after a last cabinet meeting before the election, Yukio Hatoyama's back as his successor. His successor as party chairman is elected on 28 September 2009.
After ASOS accession approval rating of his cabinet was to early December 2008, according to surveys conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun of fallen by 50 % to 20.9% - comparable low, the values of Yasuo Fukuda four months earlier. In January 2009, the rejection rate exceeded 70%. Asō so was the unbeliebtetste Prime Minister Mori Yoshirō since 2001. Broad rejection on Asos came off payments to the consumer, which should stimulate the economy by a payment of 2 trillion yen ( 16 billion euros ) to households. Against the opposition and individual politicians even from the coalition of the second supplementary budget for 2008 with the payment program ( teigaku kyōfukin, " fixed payment " ) was adopted by a two-thirds majority in the House in March 2009. The same adopted regular budget for the fiscal year beginning in April 2009 was 88 trillion yen of the hitherto largest in Japanese history. Also, the first supplementary budget adopted in May 2009 continued with another 14 trillion yen for employment, health policy and financial market measures a new record. Despite the spending programs, the OECD forecast in June 2009 for 2009, a contraction of the Japanese economy by more than six percent, but revised its growth forecast for 2010 upwards to 0.7%. According to a later statistics of the Cabinet Office, the recession in Japan ended in March 2009. Resistance on in the LDP encountered a planned 2011 increase in VAT.
Other domestic tasks were consumer protection and food safety as well as overcoming a smoldering since 2007 pension scandal in the records of pension claims of over 1.4 million citizens were registered with the authorities wrong. The responsible Minister for Social Affairs Yōichi Masuzoe was the longest continuously acting minister in the Cabinet. A reform project ASOS was fighting amakudari, the exchange of high officials in the private sector or to parastatal agencies ( watari ).
Family
Taro wife Chikako Aso is the daughter of former Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki. Her brother Shun'ichi Suzuki is the upper house MP for the LDP ( Koga faction ). ASOS father was Takakichi House deputy chief of the postwar period and the family business, the Taros younger brother Yutaka leads now. Taro ASOS maternal grandfather is the former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, his great-grandfather of Lord Privy Seal and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Makino Nobuaki, his great-great grandfather Okubo Toshimichi a key figure in the Meiji Restoration, and later Minister of the Interior. Another great-grandfather ASOS was Viscount Kanō Hisayoshi, whose great-grandson Gaku Hashimoto was until 2009 a deputy in Shūgiin for the LDP ( Tsushima faction ).
Taro Aso is the brother of Princess Tomohito of Mikasa, born Nobuko Asō, wife of the late Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, son Prince Mikasas ( Mikasa -no- miya ) and closely associated as such with the Japanese Imperial Family.
Taro Aso is Catholic. Whether he is a practicing Christian, he had recently open. His family belongs to the fourth generation of the church.