Junichiro Koizumi | |
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小泉 純一郎 | |
Koizumi in March 2010
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56th Prime Minister of Japan | |
In office April 26, 2001 – September 26, 2006 |
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Monarch | Akihito |
Preceded by | Yoshirō Mori |
Succeeded by | Shinzo Abe |
Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
In office January 26, 2002 – February 16, 2002 |
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Preceded by | Makiko Tanaka |
Succeeded by | Yoriko Kawaguchi |
Minister of Health and Welfare | |
In office November 7, 1996 – July 29, 1998 |
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Prime Minister | Ryutaro Hashimoto |
Preceded by | Naoto Kan |
Succeeded by | Sohei Miyashita |
In office December 27, 1988 – August 10, 1989 |
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Prime Minister | |
Preceded by | Takao Fujimoto |
Succeeded by | Saburo Toida |
Minister of Post and Telecommunications | |
In office December 12, 1992 – July 20, 1993 |
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Prime Minister | Kiichi Miyazawa |
Preceded by | Hideo Watanabe |
Succeeded by | Kiichi Miyazawa |
Member of the Japanese Parliament for Kanagawa 11th district |
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In office 1996–2009 |
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Preceded by | New constituency |
Succeeded by | Shinjirō Koizumi |
Majority | 197,037 (73.16%) |
Personal details | |
Born |
Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan |
January 8, 1942
Political party | Liberal Democratic Party |
Spouse(s) | Kayoko Miyamoto (m. 1978–82) |
Children |
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Alma mater |
Junichiro Koizumi (小泉 純一郎 Koizumi Jun'ichirō?) (born January 8, 1942) is a Japanese politician who was the 56th Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics when his term in parliament ended in 2009, and is currently the fifth longest serving PM in Japanese history.
Widely seen as a maverick leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he became known as an economic reformer, focusing on Japan's government debt and the privatization of its postal service. In 2005, Koizumi led the LDP to win one of the largest parliamentary majorities in modern Japanese history. Koizumi also attracted international attention through his deployment of the Japan Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, and through his visits to Yasukuni Shrine that fueled diplomatic tensions with neighboring China and South Korea. He is a member of the Nippon Kaigi nationalist organization.
Although Koizumi maintained a low profile for several years after leaving office, he returned to national attention in 2013 as an advocate for abandoning nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which contrasted with the pro-nuclear views espoused by the LDP governments both during and after Koizumi's term in office.
Koizumi is a third-generation politician. His father, Jun'ya Koizumi, was director general of the Japan Defense Agency (now Minister of Defense) and a member of the House of Representatives. His grandfather, Koizumi Matajirō, called "Tattoo Minister" because of the big tattoo on his body, and the leader of Koizumi Gumi in Kanagawa (a big group of yakuza), was Minister of Posts and Telecommunications under Prime Ministers Hamaguchi and Wakatsuki and an early advocate of postal privatization. See Koizumi family.