Takeo Miki

Takeo Miki (三木 武夫, Miki Takeo, 17 March 1907 – 14 November 1988) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1974 until 1976.

Takeo Miki
三木 武夫
Takeo Miki in the 1970s
Prime Minister of Japan
In office
9 December 1974  24 December 1976
MonarchShōwa
Preceded byKakuei Tanaka
Succeeded byTakeo Fukuda
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
31 March 1937  14 November 1988
ConstituencyTokushima At-large
Personal details
Born(1907-03-17)17 March 1907
Awa, Tokushima, Japan
Died14 November 1988(1988-11-14) (aged 81)
Tokyo, Japan
Political partyLiberal Democratic Party
Spouse(s)Mutsuko Miki (1940–1988; his death)
Alma materMeiji University
University of Southern California
Signature

Background summary

Takeo Miki (毎日グラフ, 毎日新聞社, 10 March 1952.)

Born in Awa, Tokushima, Miki graduated from Meiji University in Tokyo. He attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from the institution in 1966.[1]

During 1937 Miki was elected to the Diet; he remained there for the rest of his life, winning re-election no fewer than 19 times over 51 years. In the 1942 general election he openly voiced opposition to the military government under Hideki Tojo and still managed to win a seat; his efforts at this time were assisted by Kan Abe, the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.[2]

Miki took over from Kakuei Tanaka as Prime Minister on 9 December 1974, following the latter's implication in the corruption concerning real-estate and construction companies. The attractiveness of Miki to the LDP bosses was chiefly due to his personal integrity, and his weak power base from his small faction. In fact, Miki had neither expected nor wanted to be prime minister at all, as was reflected when upon his election he murmured "a bolt from the blue".

While Miki was at the funeral of ex-PM Eisaku Sato in 1975, he was assaulted by a right-wing extremist: Hiroyoshi Fudeyasu, the secretary-general of the Great Japan Patriotic Party[3] with foreign dignitaries nearby.[4] This caused criticism of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police over not doing enough to ensure his safety.[3]

After being elected, Miki attempted to reform the LDP, relentlessly investigating the Lockheed bribery scandals, which made him a large number of enemies within the party. A campaign literally called "Down with Miki" ("Miki oroshi") was started by influential faction leaders. Despite Miki's personal popularity with the public, the Lockheed scandal reflected poorly on the party, which lost its overall majority in the 1976 election to the Diet and had to make deals with minor parties to remain in power. Embarrassed by the result, Miki resigned[5] and was succeeded on 24 December 1976, by Takeo Fukuda.

Miscellaneous

In Mao Zedong's final days, he took a great interest in Miki's political condition, as Miki was suffering a coup d'état from amongst his own party. Mao had never shown any interest in Miki before, or even mentioned him.

He held many other posts during his career in addition to being prime minister.

NFL player Takeo Spikes was named after Miki.[6]

Connection to Seattle

During his time in Seattle, Miki spent a period as a dishwasher at noted Japanese restaurant Maneki.[7]

To commemorate the ties of Japan to America, and Seattle in particular, Miki gave 1,000 cherry trees to Seattle to commemorate the United States Bicentennial in 1976. This gift gave birth to the Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival, still running annually.[8]

Slang Term

In Hong Kong, the name "Takeo Miki" (三木武夫) is sometimes used to describe actors or actresses with wooden or no emotional expressions during movies or TV dramas. Some have said that the origin for the slang term stems from Miki's wooden expression during his appearance in news reports.

Honours

Foreign honour

References

This article incorporates text from OpenHistory.

Party political offices
Preceded by
Post established
Secretary-General of the National Cooperative Party
1947
Succeeded by
Seiichi Okada
Preceded by
Nobusuke Kishi
Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party
1956-1957
Succeeded by
Shōjiro Kawashima
Preceded by
Toichirō Tsukada
Chairman of the Policy Research Council, Liberal Democratic Party
1957-1958
Succeeded by
Takeo Fukuda
Preceded by
Okinori Kaya
Chairman of the Policy Research Council, Liberal Democratic Party
1963-1964
Succeeded by
Hideo Sutō
Preceded by
Shigesaburō Maeo
Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party
1964-1965
Succeeded by
Kakuei Tanaka
Preceded by
Kakuei Tanaka
President of the Liberal Democratic Party
1974-1976
Succeeded by
Takeo Fukuda
Political offices
Preceded by
Tetsu Katayama
Minister of Communications
1947–1948
Succeeded by
Eiji Tomiyoshi
Preceded by
Mitsujiro Ishii
Minister of Transport
1954–1955
Succeeded by
Shinji Yoshino
Preceded by
Ichiro Kono
Director of the Economic Planning Agency
1958
Succeeded by
Koichi Seko
Preceded by
Shoriki Matsutaro
Minister of State, Head of the Science and Technology Agency
1958
Succeeded by
Tatsunosuke Takasaki
Preceded by
Masanosuke Ikeda
Minister of State, Head of the Science and Technology Agency
1961–1962
Succeeded by
Tsuruyo Kondo
Preceded by
Yoshio Sakurauchi
Minister of International Trade and Industry
1965–1966
Succeeded by
Watarō Kanno
Preceded by
Etsusaburō Shiina
Minister of Foreign Affairs
1966–1968
Succeeded by
Kiichi Aichi
Preceded by
Shuji Masutani
Deputy Prime Minister of Japan
1972–1974
Succeeded by
Takeo Fukuda
Preceded by
Kakuei Tanaka
Prime Minister of Japan
1974–1976
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