Shizuka Kamei

Shizuka Kamei
亀井 靜香
Minister of State for Financial Services
In office 16 September 2009 – 11 June 2010
Prime Minister	Yukio Hatoyama Naoto Kan
Preceded by	Kaoru Yosano
Succeeded by	Shōzaburō Jimi
Minister of Construction
In office 7 November 1996 – 11 September 1997
Prime Minister	Ryutaro Hashimoto
Preceded by	Eiichi Nakao
Succeeded by	Tsutomu Kawara
Minister of Transport
In office 30 June 1994 – 8 August 1995
Prime Minister	Tomiichi Murayama
Preceded by	Nobuaki Futami
Succeeded by	Takeo Hiranuma
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 8 October 1979 – 28 September 2017
Succeeded by	Koji Satō
Constituency	Hiroshima-6th (1996–2017) Hiroshima-3rd (1979–1996)
Personal details
Born	(1936-11-01) 1 November 1936 Shōbara, Hiroshima, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Political party	Independent
Other political affiliations	Green Wind (2012―2013, dissolution) TPJ (2012) Genzei Nippon (2012, merger) Independent (2012) PNP (2005―2012) LDP (1979―2005)
Children	5
Alma mater	University of Tokyo
Website	Official website

Shizuka Kamei (亀井 静香, Kamei Shizuka, born 1 November 1936) is a Japanese politician and the chairman of the Parliamentary League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.^[1]

Early life

He was born in the city of Shōbara in Hiroshima Prefecture into a poor family. He studied at the department of economics at University of Tokyo and worked his way through school through various jobs, including singing at a cabaret.

Upon graduation in 1960, he entered Sumitomo Seika, and joined the National Police Agency in 1962. In 1972, he took charge of a number of high-profile cases, including the Red Army Asama-Sanso incident, the Narita Airport incident, and the Tel Aviv highjacking. Kamei is one of the few major politicians to oppose the death penalty, and wrote a book, Shikei Haishi ron, asserting his opposition.

Political career

In 1977, he left the agency and received 3.5 million yen in severance pay, which he used to run for the Diet in Hiroshima. He was elected in 1979 as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

In 1989, he formed the Freedom Reform Alliance, criticizing the LDP's system of factions and strongly supported Shintarō Ishihara. He became Minister of Exports in 1994 and Minister of Construction in 1996. In 1998, he left the Mitsuzuka faction and formed the "Nakayama-Kamei group" with Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Nakayama.

In 1999, he headed up the LDP's Policy Research Council and founded the Kamei faction. In 2003, he unsuccessfully ran for the position of Prime Minister against the incumbent, Junichiro Koizumi.

He opposed Koizumi's postal privatization plan and left the LDP in 2005, forming the Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) with four other Diet members. Despite facing the popular businessman Takafumi Horie in the 2005 election, he won reelection for the tenth time.

On September 16, 2009, Kamei became the banking and postal services minister in the newly formed Hatoyama cabinet. Throughout the week, he voiced his commitment to providing economic stability for small companies, whom he claimed "had lost vitality".^[2] He plans to provide a moratorium of up to three years on loan repayments and attempts to put a brake on what he perceives as excesses by financial and lending institutions.^[3]

After shifting parties twice, he is currently a political independent.

Personal life

Kamei is a six-level blackbelt in Aikido and enjoys golf and oil painting. His niece Akiko is a current member of the House of Representatives.

See also

• Capital punishment in Japan
• Nobuto Hosaka

References

Further reading

• Shikei Haishi Ron (死刑廃止論), Shizuka Kamei, Publisher kadensha (花伝社) ISBN 4-7634-0389-3, July 2002.

External links

• Official website (Japanese)