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Hikaru Matsunaga

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Hikaru Matsunaga
松永 光
Official portrait, 1998
Minister of Finance
In office
27 January 1998 – 30 July 1998
Prime MinisterRyutaro Hashimoto
Preceded byHiroshi Mitsuzuka
Succeeded byKiichi Miyazawa
Minister of International Trade and Industry
In office
9 August 1989 – 28 February 1990
Prime MinisterToshiki Kaifu
Preceded bySeiroku Kajiyama
Succeeded byKabun Mutō
Minister of Education
In office
1 November 1984 – 28 December 1985
Prime MinisterYasuhiro Nakasone
Preceded byYoshirō Mori
Succeeded byToshiki Kaifu
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
27 December 1969 – 2 June 2000
Preceded byMulti-member district
Succeeded byKoichi Takemasa
ConstituencyFormer Saitama 1st (1969–1996)
Saitama 1st (1996–2000)
Personal details
Born(1928-11-23)23 November 1928
Minamikushiyama, Japan[citation needed]
Died11 October 2022(2022-10-11) (aged 93)
Political partyLiberal Democratic
Alma materWaseda University

Hikaru Matsunaga (松永 光, Matsunaga Hikaru, 23 November 1928 – 11 October 2022) was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) who briefly served as the Minister of Finance from 27 January to 30 July 1998.

Early life and education

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Matsunaga was born on 23 November 1928.[1] He is a graduate of Waseda University's law school.[2]

Career

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Matsunaga was an attorney and prosecutor.[3] He began his career as a public prosecutor in southern regions of Japan in the 1950s.[4] Later he became a member of the LDP,[4] being a member of the Seirankai.[5] Matsunaga was education minister in the mid-1980s.[2] He served as minister of international trade and industry.[6] He was appointed by Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu to this post on 9 August 1989.[7]

Then he was appointed by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto as the minister of finance on 27 January 1998.[8] Matsunaga replaced Hiroshi Mitsuzuka as finance minister.[9] Mitsuzuka was forced to resign due to corrupt behaviour of the officials at the ministry.[10] In April 1998, Matsunaga reported that 112 ministry officials would be punished due to their excessive entertainment from banks, brokerage firms and insurers under their supervision.[11] Matsunaga's term as finance minister was short lived, and he resigned on 30 July 1998, replaced by Kiichi Miyazawa, another veteran LDP politician.[12]

In addition to these cabinet roles, Matsunaga held the following positions in the Diet: Chairman of the lower house budget committee until 1998,[9] director of the Diet education committee and vice-chairman of the PARC education division.[13] He lost his seat in the lower house election on 25 June 2000.[14]

Death

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Matsunaga died on 11 October 2022, at the age of 93.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Japan's finance ministers". Rulers. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  2. ^ a b David Holley (31 January 1998). "New Finance Minister Appointed in Japan". Los Angeles Times. Tokyo. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  3. ^ Robert Neff (8 March 1998). "Are Japan's Prosecutors on a Secret Mission?". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on 24 January 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  4. ^ a b Mark Tannenbaum; Phred Dvorak (1 February 1998). "Bribery charges hit Japan's rescue plan". The Independent. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  5. ^ James Babb (2012). "The Seirankai and the Fate of its Members: The Rise and Fall of the New Right Politicians in Japan". Japan Forum. 24 (1): 75–96. doi:10.1080/09555803.2011.637637. S2CID 96473488.
  6. ^ "New Japanese finance minister". BBC. 30 January 1998. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  7. ^ Sam Jameson (10 August 1989). "Japan's new prime minister Kaifu appoints two women to cabinet". Schenectady Gazette. Tokyo. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  8. ^ A Political Chronology of Central, South and East Asia. London: Europa Publications. 2001. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-135-35680-4.
  9. ^ a b "Matsunaga appointed as new finance minister". The Japan Times. 30 January 1998. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  10. ^ "A man with yen". The Economist. 19 February 1998. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  11. ^ "Japan Disciplines 112 Finance Officials". The New York Times. 28 April 1998. p. 5.
  12. ^ "Matsunaga expects economy to recover under Miyazawa". Kyodo News. Tokyo. 30 July 1998. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  13. ^ Leonard J. Schoppa (Winter 1991). "Zoku Power and LDP Power: A Case Study of the Zoku Role in Education Policy". Journal of Japanese Studies. 17 (1): 79–106. doi:10.2307/132908. JSTOR 132908.
  14. ^ Barbara Wanner (30 June 2000). "Ruling parties hang on to lower house majority, endorse Mori as premier". Japan Economic Institute. 25.
  15. ^ "松永光氏死去 大蔵相や通産相など歴任 93歳" (in Japanese). NHK. 12 October 2022. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
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