Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese statesman and politician, 56th and 57th Prime Minister of Japan from 25 February 1957 to 12 June 1958. His term as prime minister was marked by turbulent opposition to the U. S. -Japan security treaty signed in 1960.
Background
Nobusuke Kishi was born in the prefecture of Yamaguchi on November 13, 1896. He was the son of a manufacturer, Hidesuke Sato. His father, orginally born into the Kishi family, had been adopted by the Satos to preserve their family line and name. Similarly, Nobusuke was adopted by his father's elder brother and took the family name of Kishi. The Sato and Kishi families were of samurai descent from an area formerly known as Choshu.
Education
Nobusuke Kishi graduated from the law course of Tokyo Imperial University in 1920 and entered the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce.
Career
In 1956 Nobusuke Kishi was transferred to duty in Manchuria, where he helped to further plans for industrial development. He soon attracted attention as one of the most efficient bureaucrats in Manchuria. In 1940 he was recalled to Japan and became vice-minister of commerce and industry. In 1941 he was appointed minister of commerce and industry in the Tojo Hideki cabinet, being charged with the supervision of Japan’s wartime economy. Tojo, when he lost the support of the powerful figures in the political world, demanded the resignation of his cabinet ministers. But Kishi refused to comply, and in doing so helped to bring about the fall of the Tojo cabinet in 1944.
Alter the war, he was arrested on suspicion of being an A-class war criminal, but was released in 1948. In 1952 he was elected to the Lower House of the Diet and returned to political life. He acted as chairman of the Liberal Party’s Constitutional Survey Committee and, as such, advocated revision of the constitution and rearmament for Japan. After the merger of the Liberals and Democrats in 1956, Ishibashi Tanzan won out by a small margin over Kishi to become leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, and Kishi instead became minister of foreign affairs in the Ishibashi cabinet. Ishibashi resigned shortly after because of poor health, and in 1957 Kishi formed his own cabi-net, followed by a second cabinet in 1958.
In 1960, amidst great popular opposition concerning the revision of the Security Treaty, the newly concluded Japan-American Treaty of Mutual Security and Cooperation went into effect, and Kishi resigned immediately after. In the years since, he has remained an important figure in the Liberal Party, leading the so-called “hawk” faction and supporting the strongly anti-Communist stands of the Taiwan and South Korean governments.
Politics
While still a student, Nobusuke Kishi was strongly influenced by Uesugi Shinkichi, a scholar of constitutional systems and leader of a nationalistic organization.
Connections
When a young man, he was married to his cousin, Yoshiko Kishi, daughter of his adopted parents.
They had two children, a son, Nobukazu, and a daughter, Yoko.