Masanosuke Ikeda

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Masanosuke Ikeda
池田 正之輔
Ikeda in 1960
Director of the Science and Technology Agency
In office
8 December 1960 – 18 July 1961
Prime MinisterHayato Ikeda
Preceded byMasuo Araki
Succeeded byTakeo Miki
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
30 April 1942 – 18 December 1945
ConstituencyYamagata-2nd
In office
23 January 1949 – 13 November 1972
Personal details
Born(1898-01-12)January 12, 1898
Yamagata, Empire of Japan (now called Japan)
DiedMarch 27, 1986(1986-03-27) (aged 88)
Tokyo, Japan
Political partyLiberal Democratic Party
Other political
affiliations		Independent (1942–1945)
Kokoku Doshikai (1945)
Japan Cooperative (1945–1946)
Liberal (1945) (1946–1948)
Democratic Liberal (1948–1950)
Liberal (1950) (1950–1953)
Liberal Party-Hatoyama (1953–1954)
Japan Democratic Party (1954–1955)
Alma materNihon University

Masanosuke Ikeda (池田 正之輔}, Ikeda Masanosuke, 12 January 1898 – 27 March 1986) was a Japanese politician who served as Director of the Science and Technology Agency during the Second Ikeda Cabinet from 1960 to 1961. He also served in the Japanese House of Representatives, being elected as a non recommended independent in the 1942 Japanese general election, and again in the 1949 Japanese general election. He would then go on to serve in the House for 24 years, before refusing to run for re-election after a corruption conviction.

Early life[edit]

Ikeda was born in Yamagata Prefecture on January 12, 1898. He began to attend Nihon University in 1922, and would go on to graduate from the university's Department of Political Science in 1926, shortly thereafter becoming a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun.[1]

Career[edit]

After working as an editorial writer for the Yomiuri Shimbun, he gained the acquaintance of Bukichi Miki, and would join the Hochi Shimbun. After serving in management roles inside the newspaper, he became Director of the Federated News Agency.[2]

He was first elected to the National Diet in the 1942 election, and, towards the end of the war, joined the Kokoku Doshikai, a group of politicians centered around Nobusuke Kishi which planned to force the resignation of the Kantarō Suzuki Cabinet for its unwillingness to commit to war on the mainland.[2] He also served as secretary to Suehiko Shiono during his stint as Minister of Justice. After the war, he served as a founding member of the Japan Cooperative Party along with other past members of the Kokoku Doshikai.[3]

He ran again for the Diet in 1949, and won election as a member of the Democratic Liberal Party. After Bukichi Miki was allowed to take office again after being unpurged by American authorities, he worked with Miki and Ichirō Hatoyama's group to form the Japan Democratic Party. He was then named as Secretary-General of the party.[2]

Following the merger of conservative groups into the Liberal Democratic Party, he joined the new organization. He served as members of the Sunada group [ja], Kishi faction, and the Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai. He joined the Second Ikeda Cabinet as Director of the Science and Technology Agency [ja] and Japanese Atomic Energy Commission, and served in the roles until the first reshuffle in July 1961.[2] He continued to serve as an LDP backbencher afterwards. He was charged with bribery and sentenced to house arrest in relation to the Nippon Express Incident [ja] in 1968. In 1977, the Supreme Court of Japan sentenced him to a year and a half of prison, on top of a three million yen fine for the corruption scandal. While he was eventually spared from prison due to his health, he retired from politics.[2] During investigation into the case, a dinner between Ikeda, Takeo Fukuda, and Prosecutor General Daikichi Imoto [ja] had a dinner together which was soon viewed as problematic for Imoto.[4]

During his time in office, he worked hard for trade negotiations with China, even before the normalization of relations.[5] After 1953, he traveled several times to China in an attempt to work out a solution, and helped negotiate the Fourth Trade Agreement in 1958.[2]

He died on March 27, 1986, at a hospital in Tokyo due to renal failure. He was 88.[6]

Personal life[edit]

He had a short build and rough nose, but was considered to have been strong-willed. When he joined the Japan Liberal Party instead of Shigeru Yoshida's own party, it was alleged he got into a fight with Ichirō Kōno. A similar incident occurred when he got into a fight with party comrade Masuo Araki and called him an "idiot", and was alleged to have gotten into a physical confrontation with Kakuei Tanaka in which Tanaka taunted him.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ 上田正昭、津田秀夫、永原慶二、藤井松一、藤原彰、 (2009). コンサイス日本人名辞典 第5版 [Concise Japanese Name Dictionary 5th Edition]. Sanseidō. p. 86.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kinya Ohse (1986). 『新編庄内人名辞典』 [Shonai Biographical Dictionary] (in Japanese). Shonai Biographical Dictionary Publication Society. p. 135.
  3. ^ Studies, Association for Asian (1970). The Dynamics of China's Foreign Relations. Harvard Univ Asia Center. ISBN 978-0-674-21875-8.
  4. ^ 「井本台吉氏 元検事総長死去」[Former Attorney General Daikichi Imoto passes away]; Yomiuri Shimbun, 10 November 1995.
  5. ^ Beauchamp, Edward R. (11 April 2013). Japan's Role in International Politics since World War II. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-52427-1.
  6. ^ Yomiuri Shimbun, 28 March 1986
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