Koki Ishii
Encyclopedia
Kōki Ishii was a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan
Democratic Party of Japan
The is a political party in Japan founded in 1998 by the merger of several opposition parties. Its socially liberal platform is generally considered center-left in the Japanese political spectrum...

 (DPJ) born in Setagaya, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

.

Early life

Ishii graduated from Chuo University
Chuo University
Chuo University is a one of the Japanese leading universities. Thus it is competitive in several rankings such as shown below.-General Rankings:The university has been ranked 27th, 25th, 34th during 2008-2010 respectively in the ranking "Truly Strong Universities" by Toyo Keizai.-Research...

, where he studied the legal educations and the graduate school of Waseda University
Waseda University
, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...

. During the student time, he has participated in Student activism
Student activism
Student activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding...

. Then Ishii had been in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 for 6 years as an International student
International student
According to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development , international students are those who travel to a country different from their own for the purpose of tertiary study. Despite that, the definition of international students varies in each country in accordance to their own national...

 to Lomonosov Moscow State University, following the recommendation by Yasushi Akutagawa
Yasushi Akutagawa
was a Japanese composer and conductor. He was born and raised in Tabata, Tokyo. His father was Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.Akutagawa was taught composition by Kunihiko Hashimoto and Akira Ifukube at the Tokyo Conservatory of Music...

, Representative of Japan-Soviet Union Youth Friendship Committee at that time. There he majored theory of state and law under the guidance of Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 A.Y.Denisov and earned a doctorate in philosophy.

Political career

After coming back from Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Ishii has started his political activity at the Socialist Democratic Federation (Japan)
Socialist Democratic Federation (Japan)
The , also referred to in Japanese by the shortened , was a Japanese political party that existed from 1978 to 1994. It was formed from the merger of the and the .- Socialist Citizen Federation :...

 (SDF). In 1992 he defected from SDF, entered the Japan New Party
Japan New Party
The Japan New Party was a Japanese political party that existed briefly from 1992 to 1994. It should not be confused with the New Party Nippon founded in 2005....

 and was elected to the House of Representatives of Japan
House of Representatives of Japan
The is the lower house of the Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors of Japan is the upper house.The House of Representatives has 480 members, elected for a four-year term. Of these, 180 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation,...

 in 1993. Ishii has been the Parliamentary Vice-Minister of the Management and Coordination Agency under Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata
Tsutomu Hata
is a Japanese politician and was the 80th Prime Minister of Japan for 9 weeks in 1994.He was born in Tokyo, a son of the Liberal Democratic Party Member of Parliament Bushiro Hata. Hata graduated from Seijo University and was employed by the Odakyu bus company from 1958 to 1969...

.

Even he was elected from Japan New Party, Ishii broke with Morihiro Hosokawa
Morihiro Hosokawa
is a Japanese politician who was the 79th Prime Minister of Japan from August 9, 1993 to April 28, 1994. His coalition was the first non-Liberal Democratic Party government since 1955.- Early life :...

 and did not enter the New Frontier Party
New Frontier Party
The was a Japanese political party that existed during the mid-1990s. As a merger of several small parties, the party was ideologically diverse, with its membership ranging from moderate socialists to neoliberals and conservatives...

. After being the member of the Liberal League and the New Party Sakigake
New Party Sakigake
The New Party Sakigake was a Japanese political party that broke away from the Liberal Democratic Party on June 22, 1993. The party was created by Masayoshi Takemura. The party, was a centrist party, and it had many reformist and even moderate ecological elements. The theoretical reader was...

, Ishii has participated in the formation of the DPJ in 1996.

Ishii's career in the Diet was marked by his fieldwork concerning the waste of the expenditure of the Japanese Government. By utilizing the investigative function of the diet and heading an anticorruption task force known as "G-Men Squad" in DPJ, he pursued the waste of the public expenditure as well as the injustice of the government. In November 1997, Ishii uncovered the malfeasance in the Central Procurement Office of the Ministry of Defense, which has led to the Criminal investigation by the Tokyo Local Public Prosecutors Office. The investigation revealed that annually more than 2 trillion Yen had been misused for long time.

In 2000 Ishii opposed the screening of Battle Royale
Battle Royale (film)
is a 2000 Japanese film directed by Kinji Fukasaku based on the novel of the same name. It was written by Kenta Fukasaku and stars Takeshi Kitano. The film aroused international controversy.A sequel, Battle Royale II: Requiem, followed...

 considering its contents that students kill each other until only one is left, and asked Tadamori Oshima
Tadamori Oshima
is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet . A native of Hachinohe, Aomori and graduate of Keio University, he worked at the national newspaper Mainichi Shimbun from 1970 to 1974 and was elected to the assembly of Aomori Prefecture...

, the Minister of Education at that time for the government opinion towards the film in the 150th Diet. Ironically this attracted the public interest so that the film grossed ¥3.11 billion domestically. (around $25 million US)

Ishii was also keen on pursuing the background of Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
The Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, usually referred to in the Japanese media as the , was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by members of Aum Shinrikyo on March 20, 1995....

, with forming an interparty group in the Diet he played an active role in exposing the activities of the Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese new religious movement. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway....

 in Russia.

Ishii's policies were as follows;
  1. To reduce the Amakudari
    Amakudari
    is the institutionalised practice where Japanese senior bureaucrats retire to high-profile positions in the private and public sectors. The practice is increasingly viewed as corrupt and a drag on unfastening the ties between private sector and state which prevent economic and political...

     companies, to collect the capital paid by the Government and the assets increased, and to return them to the people. (His investigation revealed that there exists more than 3,000 such companies in Japan)
  2. He was the representative of "People's Board of Audit", and published a statute to decrease the number of the Amakudari companies and to strengthen the function of the Board of Audit
    Board of Audit (Japan)
    The reviews government expenditures and submits an annual report to the Diet. Article 90 of the Constitution of Japan and the Board of Audit Act of 1947 give this body substantial independence from both cabinet and Diet control....

    .
  3. A pile of business monopolized by the government's and the local governments' Keiretsu
    Keiretsu
    A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of business group. The keiretsu has maintained dominance over the Japanese economy for the greater half of the twentieth century....

     companies (Amakudari companies) must be allocated to the private small and medium-sized enterprises.

Ishii's searching investigation of the Japanese real budget

In the 154th Diet, Ishii has discovered the secret budget and pointed out that the real budget of the Japanese Government is about 200 trillion Yen. Masajuro Shiokawa
Masajuro Shiokawa
is a Japanese politician.Born in Fuse City , Osaka Prefecture, he graduated from the economics faculty of Keio University in 1944 and founded the Mitsuaki Corporation in 1946....

, the Finance Minister
Minister of Finance (Japan)
The is the member of the Cabinet of Japan in charge of the Ministry of Finance. This position was formerly cited as being Japan's most powerful and one of the world's, because Japan had historically held the largest foreign exchange reserves...

 at that time, admitted the existence of such secret budget with saying "There is nothing to deny."

Assassination

On 25 October 2002, Ishii was stabbed to death by Hakusui Ito (Legal alias
Alien registration in Japan
is a system used to record information regarding aliens resident in Japan. It is handled at the municipal level, parallel to the koseki and juminhyo systems used to record information regarding Japanese nationals.Foreigners staying in Japan for more than 90 days are required to register...

, real name: Yoon Pek-Soo), an ultra-nationalist under the control of Yamaguchi-gumi
Yamaguchi-gumi
is Japan's largest and most infamous yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe pre-WWII....

. Ishii was the third Japanese politician murdered after the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Ito said he killed Ishii because Ishii refused to pay Ito's rent, however some think it was an assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 as Ishii looked closely into the corruptions of Members of Parliament and bureaucrats, and he said he found something which could sink the Cabinet Koizumi
Junichiro Koizumi
is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics when his term in parliament ended.Widely seen as a maverick leader of the Liberal Democratic Party , he became known as an economic reformer, focusing on Japan's government debt and the...

. On 15 November 2005, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Japan
The Supreme Court of Japan , located in Chiyoda, Tokyo is the highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority to interpret the Japanese constitution and decide questions of national law...

 sentenced Ito to life
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

. The Super J Channel, a documentary released by TV Asahi
TV Asahi
, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....

 on 11 February 2009 reported that Ito lied when he confessed by saying he acted alone when in fact he acted on behalf of others. After Ishii's death, a by-election was held in Tokyo 6th District on 27 April 2003, and Yoko Komiyama
Yoko Komiyama
is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet . A native of Shibuya, Tokyo and graduate of Seijo University, she worked at the public broadcaster NHK from 1972 to 1998...

 of DPJ was elected to the House of Representatives.

External links

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