Kunio Hatoyama

Kunio Hatoyama (September 13, 1949 – June 21, 2016) was a Japanese politician who held the position of Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications in the cabinets of Prime Ministers Shinzō Abe and Yasuo Fukuda until June 12, 2009.

Biographical Information:

Kunio Hatoyama was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1949. He was the son of Yasuko Hatoyama and Iichirō Hatoyama. His father was a bureaucrat who later became a politician, achieving his third term in elected office. His paternal grandfather was Ichirō Hatoyama, who served as the President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and was Prime Minister of Japan from 1954 to 1956.

His maternal grandfather was Shōjirō Ishibashi, founder of the Bridgestone Corporation. Hatoyama attended the University of Tokyo, where he graduated from the Faculty of Law with a degree in political science. Following his education, he became an aide to Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

Political Career:

Hatoyama first ran for office in 1976, contesting for the House of Representatives as a candidate for the New Liberal Club, and subsequently joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after winning the election. In 1993, he left the LDP to become an independent politician, expressing a desire to establish a new political party to oppose the LDP. During this period, he served briefly as Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture in the cabinet of Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata.

In 1994, Kunio Hatoyama was involved in the formation of the now-defunct New Frontier Party. He left this party in 1996 to co-found the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) with his brother Yukio Hatoyama and served as Vice Leader of the opposition. Due to internal divisions, he withdrew from the DPJ in 1999. In 2000, he rejoined the LDP after an unsuccessful bid for the governorship of Tokyo.

In August 2007, Hatoyama was appointed as Justice Minister in Shinzō Abe's cabinet, a role he retained into the September 2007 cabinet of Yasuo Fukuda. His tenure included overseeing the execution of serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, which drew media attention and criticism, including being referred to as "Grim Reaper" by Asahi Shimbun, a remark that reportedly angered him. On September 24, 2008, under Prime Minister Tarō Aso, he was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications. He resigned from this position on June 12, 2009, following disagreements over personnel decisions, specifically concerning the replacement of Japan Post Holdings President Yoshifumi Nishikawa.

Personal Life:

Kunio Hatoyama was married to Emily Baird, also known as Emily Takami. Emily Baird is the daughter of an Australian army sergeant, Jimmy Baird, and a Japanese woman. She was a former model and actress. The couple had three children: Tarō, Hanako, and Jirō Hatoyama. Kunio Hatoyama passed away on June 21, 2016, at a hospital in Tokyo, at the age of 66. He was survived by his wife, three children, and five grandchildren.

Controversies:

During his political career, Hatoyama was involved in several controversies. In September 2007, he suggested a system allowing executions without his personal sign-off, sparking criticism from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International Japan. In October 2007, he made remarks attempting to justify increased immigration controls by claiming an unverified connection between a terrorist involved in the 2002 Bali bombings and a friend of a friend, leading to later retractions and apologies.

He was also affiliated with Nippon Kaigi, a revisionist organization promoting nationalist and historical revisionist views in Japan.

References:

- Itoh, Mayumi. The Hatoyama Dynasty: Japanese Political Leadership through the Generations. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

External links:

- Official website (Japanese).