Information AboutTaro Aso |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT TARO ASO | |
| 1940 births | |
| government ministers of japan | |
| japanese politicians | |
| people from fukuoka prefecture | |
| roman catholic politicians | |
| living people | |
| olympic shooters of japan | |
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Taro Aso (麻生太郎 ''Asō Tarō'', born September 20 , 1940 in Iizuka, Fukuoka ) is the Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party, after having served as Minister For Foreign Affairs in the Government Of Japan . EARLY LIFE Aso was born in Iizuka, Fukuoka . His father, Takakichi Aso, was the chairman of the Aso Cement Company and a close associate of Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka ; his mother was Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida 's daughter. Aso is also a great-great-grandson of Toshimichi Okubo , and his wife is the third daughter of Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki . His younger sister, Nobuko , is the wife of Prince Tomohito Of Mikasa , a first cousin of the Emperor Akihito . Aso first graduated from the Faculty of Politics and Economics at before Civil War Forced him to return to Japan. Aso joined his father's company in 1966, and served as president of the Aso Mining Company from 1973 to 1979. He has offered no apologies for the company's use of Forced Labor during World War II .Christopher Reed, “ Family Skeletons: Japan's Foreign Minister and Forced Labor by Koreans and Allied POWs ”, ''ZNet'', 2006-04-30. He was also a member of the Japanese Shooting team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and President of the Japan Junior Chamber in 1978. POLITICAL CAREER Aso was elected as a member of the House Of Representatives in October 1979 , and has since been re-elected eight times. In 1988 he became Parliamentary Vice Minister for Education. He joined the Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi in 2003 as Minister of Internal Affairs, Posts and Communications. On October 31 , 2005 , he became Minister for Foreign Affairs. There has been some speculation that his position in the Cabinet was due to his membership in the Kono Group, an LDP caucus led by pro-Chinese lawmaker Yohei Kono : by appointing Aso as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Koizumi may have been attempting to "rein in" Kono's statements critical of Japanese foreign policy.Hideo Hamada, “ The Diet Now: Containment and Division ”, ''JAN JAN'', 2005-11-01. Aso was one of the final candidates to replace Koizumi as prime minister in 2006 , but lost the internal party election to Shinzo Abe by a wide margin. Both Abe and Aso are conservative on foreign policy issues and have taken confrontational stances towards some East Asia n nations, particularly North Korea and, to a lesser extent, the People's Republic Of China . Abe was considered a more "moderate" politician than the more "hard-line" Aso, and led Aso in opinion polling within Japan.“ Hardline Hawk or Unapologetic Bigot? ”, ''ComingAnarchy.com'', 2005-11-01. Controversial statements At a meeting of the Kono Group in 2001 , Aso drew criticism when he said that "those '' Burakumin '' can't become prime minister," a statement directed at Hiromu Nonaka , a ''burakumin'' member of the Diet. Aso's office attempted to clarify the statements by saying that they were misunderstood. In 2001 as economics minister he was quoted as saying he wanted to make Japan a country where "rich Jews" would like to live.Reuters, “ Japan diplomat: Blonds 'no good' in Mideast talks ”, ''CNN.com'', 2007-03-22. In May of 2003 , while attending a festival at the University Of Tokyo , Aso remarked that Koreans wanted to change their names to Japanese names during colonial rule, and that Japan helped in the diffusion of the Hangul writing system. Later in 2003, when Abe was inaugurated as Minister of Internal Affairs, Posts and Communications, he predicted that Information Technology developments would lead to a future in which paper was replaced by "floppies." On October 15 , 2005 , he praised Japan for having "one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race," and stated that it was the only such country in the world.Christopher Reed, “ Ghosts of Wartime Japan Haunt Koizumi's Cabinet ”, ''New America Media'', 2005-11-03. On '')“ Japan alarmed by Chinese 'threat' ”, ''BBC'', 2005-12-22. On January 28 , 2006 , he called for the emperor to visit the controversial Yasukuni shrine. He later backtracked on the comment, but stated that he hoped such a visit would be possible in the future.Kyodo, “ Aso rapped for emperor shrine visit remark ”, ''CHINAdaily.com.cn'', 2006-01-29. '' Kyodo News '' reported that he had said on February 4 , 2006 "our predecessors did a good thing" regarding Compulsory Education implemented during Japan's colonization of Taiwan .Kyodo, “ Taiwan colonization was 'good': Aso ”, ''The Japan Times Online'', 2006-02-05. '') that the Beijing rather than Taipei Government be considered the sole legal government of China and that Taiwan be considered "an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China." According to the ''Mainichi Daily'', Aso was speaking at a lecture in Nagasaki Prefecture. Aso referred to a Japanese peace initiative, saying, "Japan is doing what the Americans can't do. You can trust Japanese. It would probably be no good to have blue eyes and blond hair."Justin McCurry, “ Blue eyes, blond hair: that's US problem, says Japanese minister ”, ''The Guardian'', 2007-03-23.However, this translation has a slight error. He did not say "you can trust Japanese", but "Japanese are trusted the Middle Eastern countries ". Reuters reported (March, 2007) that the statement was in reference to diplomacy in the Middle East, and quoted Aso saying "Luckily, we Japanese have yellow faces". This quote is just part of what he said. Japanese papers reported that the whole thing was "Luckily, Japanese have yellow faces. We did not exploit, or shoot machine guns there (Middle East)". TRIVIA He is a big fan of , one of the biggest otaku areas in Tokyo, attracted a number of people in September 2006 during the president election of Liberal Democratic Party . He established the International Manga Prize for non-Japanese Mangaka in 2007. He is famous for being a Rozen Maiden fan and has been nicknamed .“ Taro Aso Speaks in Akiba ”, ''Anime News Network'', 2006-09-25. REFERENCES SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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