Tanzan Ishibashi

Tanzan Ishibashi (石橋 湛山, Ishibashi Tanzan, 25 September 1884 25 April 1973) was a Japanese journalist and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1956 to 1957. He was also Director General of the Japan Defense Agency in addition to being Prime Minister. During the same time he was the 2nd president of the Liberal Democratic Party, the majority party in the Diet. From 1952 to 1968 he was also the president of Rissho University. Being a member of Nichiren-shū, the name Tanzan is a religious name, as his profane name was Seizō (省三).

Tanzan Ishibashi
石橋 湛山
Prime Minister of Japan
In office
23 December 1956  31 January 1957
MonarchShōwa
Preceded byIchirō Hatoyama
Succeeded byNobusuke Kishi
Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency
In office
23 December 1956  31 January 1957
MonarchShōwa
Prime MinisterTanzan Ishibashi
Preceded byFunada Naka
Succeeded byNobusuke Kishi
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications
In office
23 December 1956  27 December 1956
Preceded byIsamu Murakami
Succeeded byTaro Hirai
Minister of International Trade and Industry
In office
10 December 1954  23 December 1956
Prime MinisterIchirō Hatoyama
Preceded byKiichi Aichi
Succeeded byMikio Mizuta
Minister of Finance
In office
22 May 1946  24 May 1947
Prime MinisterShigeru Yoshida
Preceded byKeizo Shibusawa
Succeeded byTetsu Katayama (Acting)
Member of the House of Representatives
for Shizuoka 2nd District
In office
1 October 1952  29 January 1967
In office
26 April 1947  17 May 1947
Personal details
Born(1884-09-25)25 September 1884
Tokyo, Japan
Died25 April 1973(1973-04-25) (aged 88)
Osaka, Japan
Political partyLiberal Democratic Party (1955–1973)
Other political
affiliations
Socialist Party (1945–1955)
Alma materWaseda University
Signature

Life

Ishibashi was born in Tokyo as the son of Nippu Sugita (1856–1931)[1], a Nichiren Buddhist priest and the 81st head of Kuon-ji temple in Yamanashi prefecture. Ishibashi, who took on his mother's surname, would become a Nichiren priest himself.[2] He studied philosophy and graduated from Waseda University's faculty of literature department.[3]

He worked as a journalist at the Mainichi Shimbun for a while. After he finished military service, he joined "Tōyō Keizai Shimpo" (Eastern Economic Journal) and later he became its president in 1941. He wrote about Japanese financial policy, developing over time a new liberal perspective.[4]

Ishibashi had a liberal political view and was one of the most consistent proponents of individualism during the Taisho Democracy movement. In this regard, he also promoted a feminist perspective, advocating comprehensive "legal, political, educational, and economic" equality for women so that they could better thrive in the competitive modern society, in contrast to the stratified conditions of feudal life.[5] Ishibashi was also one of the rare personalities who opposed Japan's colonialism. Instead, he advocated a Small Japan policy; the core opinion of his Small Japan policy (小日本主義, shō-nihon shugi) was the abandonment of Manchuria and of the other countries which Japan had partly or wholly colonized, to refocus efforts on Japan's own economic and cultural development.[4][6] In addition, he allied himself with Tanaka Ōdō in arguing for free trade and international cooperation over militarism and colonialism.[5]

Ishibashi's cabinet (Ishibashi is in the centre, with Nobusuke Kishi to his left, as his Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Hayato Ikeda to his right as his Minister of Finance).

After World War II he received some political offers, including from the Japan Socialist Party, which offered to make him a candidate. Ishibashi became the minister of Finance under the first cabinet of Shigeru Yoshida from 1946 to 1947. In 1947 he was purged and forced to resign after openly opposing US General MacArthur's policies. After his purge was repealed in 1951, he allied with Ichirō Hatoyama and joined the movement against Yoshida's cabinet. In 1953 Ishibashi was appointed to minister of Industry by Hatoyama who became the prime minister. Around this time, Ishibashi was one of the supporters of Japanese rearmament.[7] In 1955, the Liberal Democratic Party was formed and Ishibashi joined it.

When Hatoyama decided to retire in 1956, the LDP held a vote for their new president. At first Nobusuke Kishi was considered the most likely candidate, but Ishibashi allied himself with another candidate (Kojiro Ishii) and won the election. Ishibashi was appointed as president of the LDP and became the prime minister of Japan. Ishibashi stated that the government should endeavor to set up diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and also took a cooperative approach towards different political perspectives at home, resulting in high public approval ratings[8]. Unfortunately he became sick and gave up his office only two months later.

After he resigned the post of prime minister and post of president of LDP, he visited China in 1963. He was known as a prominent figure among liberal politicians in the LDP. He opposed Kishi's politics on security, which seemed too militant to Ishibashi.

Tanzan Ishibashi died on April 24, 1973 [9]

Honours

From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

  • Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (29 April 1964)
  • Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers (25 April 1973; posthumous)

Sources

  • Liberalism in Modern Japan: Ishibashi Tanzan and His Teachers, 1905-1960, by Sharon H. Nolte, Published by University of California Press, 1986
  • Ishibashi Tanzan’s World Economic Theory - The War Resistance of an Economist in the 1930s, Princeton University (http://www.princeton.edu/~collcutt/doc/Keshi_English.pdf)
Political offices
Preceded by
Keizo Shibusawa
Minister of Finance
19461947
Succeeded by
Tetsu Katayama
Interim
Preceded by
Kiichi Aichi
Minister of International Trade and Industry
19541956
Succeeded by
Mikio Mizuta
Preceded by
Isamu Murakami
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications
1956
Succeeded by
Taro Hirai
Preceded by
Ichirō Hatoyama
Prime Minister of Japan
19561957
Succeeded by
Nobusuke Kishi
Party political offices
Preceded by
Ichirō Hatoyama
President of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
19561957
Succeeded by
Nobusuke Kishi

References

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