Takashi Kawamura (politician)

Takashi Kawamura (Japanese河村 たかし, Kawamura Takashi, born November 3, 1948 in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese politician, Mayor of Nagoya and former deputy in Shūgiin, the lower house.

Kawamura worked after his studies at the Hitotsubashi University in his father's paper recycling plant Shoji Kawamura. After standing unsuccessfully as an independent candidate in the 1990 election Shūgiin he received at the second attempt in 1993, now as a candidate of the New Japan Party, in viermandatigen constituency Aichi 1 the highest share of the vote and moved into Shūgiin. During the restoration of the Japanese political landscape in the 1990s Kawamura was a member of the New Progressive Party, the Liberal Party and, finally, from 1998, the Democratic Party. After the electoral reform, he ran from 1996 successfully four times in a single constituency Aichi 1, which includes parts of Nagoya and is considered a democratic stronghold.

In April 2009, Kawamura resigned his seat to run for the mayoral election in Nagoya on April 26 for the succession of Takehisa Matsubara. He ran as Independent, but was supported by the Democrats. Its main competitor Masahiko Hosokawa enjoyed the support of the national government parties LDP and Kōmeitō. In the election campaign, Kawamura recognized as a reduction of municipal taxes and municipal staff spending a. He has received over half a million votes and could Hosokawa (about 283,000 votes) and two other candidates clearly distancing of himself. The election result was seen by Democrats as part of the strengthening of the damaged by a funding scandal Chairman Ichirō Ozawa.

The implementation of his campaign promises brought Kawamura in conflict with the City Council, which approved the reduction of the local "citizen control " ( Jumin - show ) by ten percent only on the basis of annual checks and refused to reduce the remuneration of the members and the reduction of the City Council. Kawamura 2010 initiated a process for the resolution of the City Council. In October 2010, the followers Kawamura filed a petition with the required signatures of one-fifth of voters to conduct a referendum on the resolution of the City Council in the way. However, initially more than 100,000 signatures were declared in November 2010 to be invalid. Kawamura subsequently announced his imminent resignation to new elections - to get a clear mandate for his reform plans - concurrently with the gubernatorial elections in Aichi on February 6, 2011. A re-examination by the Electoral Supervisory Commission of the City of Nagoya presented in December 2010, however, that but enough valid votes were available. The vote, the first of its kind in a " big city by government decree " ( Seirei shitei toshi ), also found on February 6, 2011 and was adopted by voter turnout of 54%, the elections for the City Council shall be held within 40 days. The Democratic Municipal Group has turned against Kawamura and supported at the mayoral candidacy of former Shūgiin deputies Yoshihiro Ishida, a former mayor of Inuyama. Kawamura won the election clearly against Ishida and two other candidates.

In April 2010, Kawamura founded the party Genzei Nippon (减税 日本, " Tax Reduction Japan" ), seeking an absolute majority in the city council elections and in the gubernatorial election in Aichi the successful candidacy of former Shūgiin deputies Hideaki Omura (formerly LDP) supported.