Zentaro Kosaka

Zentaro Kosaka
小坂 善太郎
Zentaro Kosaka in 1960
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 15 September 1976 – 24 December 1976
Prime Minister	Takeo Miki
Preceded by	Kiichi Miyazawa
Succeeded by	Iichirō Hatoyama
Minister of State, Head of the Economic Planning Agency
In office 22 December 1972 – 25 November 1973
Prime Minister	Kakuei Tanaka
Preceded by	Kiichi Arita
Succeeded by	Tsuneo Uchida
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 8 December 1960 – 18 July 1962
Prime Minister	Hayato Ikeda
Preceded by	Aiichiro Fujiyama
Succeeded by	Masayoshi Ōhira
Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission
In office 1 July 1954 – 1 October 1954
Prime Minister	Shigeru Yoshida
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Naoshi Ohara
Minister of Labour
In office 21 May 1953 – 16 June 1954
Prime Minister	Shigeru Yoshida
Preceded by	Kuichiro Totsuka
Succeeded by	Saburo Chiba
Personal details
Born	23 January 1912 Nagano, Japan
Died	26 November 2000 (aged 88) Tokyo
Political party	Liberal Democratic Party
Alma mater	Hitotsubashi University

Zentaro Kosaka (小坂 善太郎, Kosaka Zentarō^?, 1912 – 26 November 2000) was a Japanese politician who served as foreign minister for two times and as labor minister.

Hailed from Nagano Prefecture, Kosaka was born into a politician family in 1912. His grandfather, Zennosuke Kosaka, was the founder of the daily Shinano Mainichi and a politician. His father, Junzo Kosaka, was also a politician. His younger brother, Tokusaburo Kosaka, was a leading politician of the Liberal Democratic Party. Zentaro Kosaka was a graduate of Tokyo University of Commerce (present-day Hitotsubashi University).

After graduation, Kosaka began his career at the Mitsubishi Bank. Then he worked for Shin-Etsu Chemical that was established by his father, Junzo Kosaka. Later he joined the Liberal Democratic Party. He was part of the faction headed by Hayato Ikeda.

Kosaka first became a member of the House of Representatives in 1946, being a representative for the Nagano Prefecture. He served at the lower house 16 times and held different ministerial post. On 6 September 1960, Kosaka visited Seoul, being the first Japanese official to visit South Korea since 1945. He was appointed labor minister in the Yoshida Cabinet, foreign minister in the cabinets of Hayato Ikeda and Takeo Miki. His first term as foreign minister was from 8 December 1960 to 18 July 1962.

In August 1966, Kosaka and Yoshimi Furui headed an eight-member LDP delegation to visit China. They both held the views of right-conservatism, arguing for Japan's independence from the US and normalized relations with China. After the visit, Kosaka developed a policy report, called the Kosaka Report, which was submitted to the LDP's policy affairs research council.