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Shizuka Kamei
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亀井 靜香
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Official Portrait
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| Minister of State for Financial Services | |
| In office 16 September 2009 – 11 June 2010 | |
| Prime Minister | Yukio Hatoyama Naoto Kan |
| Preceded by | Kaoru Yosano |
| Succeeded by | Shōzaburō Jimi |
| Minister of Construction | |
| In office 7 November 1996 – 11 September 1997 | |
| Prime Minister | Ryutaro Hashimoto |
| Preceded by | Eiichi Nakao |
| Succeeded by | Tsutomu Kawara |
| Minister of Transport | |
| In office 30 June 1994 – 8 August 1995 | |
| Prime Minister | Tomiichi Murayama |
| Preceded by | Nobuaki Futami |
| Succeeded by | Takeo Hiranuma |
| Member of the House of Representatives | |
| In office 8 October 1979 – 28 September 2017 | |
| Succeeded by | Koji Satō |
| Constituency | Hiroshima-6th (1996–2017) Hiroshima-3rd (1979–1996) |
| Minister for Postal Reform | |
| In office September 16, 2009 – June 8, 2010 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1936-11-01) 1 November 1936 (age 87) Shōbara, Hiroshima, Japan |
| Political party | Independent (2014–2017) |
| Other political affiliations |
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| Children | 5 |
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo |
| Website | Official website |
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Shizuka Kamei (亀井 静香, Kamei Shizuka, born 1 November 1936) is a former Japanese politician and a former chairman of the Parliamentary League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.[1][2][3]
He was born in the city of ShōbarainHiroshima Prefecture into a poor family. He studied at the department of economics at University of Tokyo and worked his way through school through various jobs, including singing at a cabaret.
Upon graduation in 1960, he entered Sumitomo Seika, and joined the National Police Agency in 1962. In 1972, he took charge of a number of high-profile cases, including the Red Army Asama-Sanso incident, the Narita Airport incident, and the Tel Aviv highjacking. Kamei is one of the few major politicians to oppose the death penalty, and wrote a book, Shikei Haishi ron, asserting his opposition.
In 1977, he left the agency and received 3.5 million yen in severance pay, which he used to run for the Diet in Hiroshima. He was elected in 1979 as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
In 1989, he formed the Freedom Reform Alliance, criticizing the LDP's system of factions and strongly supported Shintarō Ishihara. He became Minister of Transport in 1994 and Minister of Construction in 1996. In 1998, he left the Mitsuzuka faction and formed the "Nakayama-Kamei group" with Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Nakayama.
In 1999, he headed up the LDP's Policy Research Council and founded the Kamei faction. In 2003, he unsuccessfully ran for the position of Prime Minister against the incumbent, Junichiro Koizumi.
He opposed Koizumi's postal privatization plan and left the LDP in 2005, forming the Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) with four other Diet members. Despite facing the popular businessman Takafumi Horie in the 2005 election, he won reelection for the tenth time.
On 16 September 2009, Kamei became the banking and postal services minister in the newly formed Hatoyama cabinet. Throughout the week, he voiced his commitment to providing economic stability for small companies, who he claimed "had lost vitality".[4] He plans to provide a moratorium of up to three years on loan repayments and attempts to put a brake on what he perceives as excesses by financial and lending institutions.[5]
Kamei decided not to run in the 2017 Japanese general election and therefore lost his seat in the House of Representatives.[6]
He is sometimes humorously referred to as Shizuka-chan (where "chan" is a title usually reserved for young girls) after a female character in the manga Doraemon who shares his personal name.
The character "Takeo Tsuruta" in the manga Akumetsu is based on him.
In August 2003, Kamei acknowledged receiving political donations from the leader of a group of loan sharks affiliated to the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate in Japan.[7] The donor was Susumu Kajiyama.[8]
Kamei is a six-level blackbelt in Aikido and enjoys golf and oil painting. His niece Akiko is a current member of the House of Representatives.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of State for Financial Services 2009–2010 |
Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Construction 1996–1997 |
Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Transportation 1994–1995 |
Succeeded by |
| House of Representatives (Japan) | ||
| New constituency | Representative for Hiroshima's 6th district 1996–2017 |
Succeeded by |
| Preceded by
Kiichi Miyazawa |
Representative for Hiroshima's 3rd district (multi-member) 1979–1996 Served alongside: Kiichi Miyazawa, Masashi Furukawa, Moriyoshi Satō, Masakatsu Okada, Yoshito Fukuoka, Minoru Yanagida, Tatsukuni Komori |
District eliminated |
| Preceded by Motoji Kondo |
Chair, House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries 1990–1991 |
Succeeded by Ichizo Ōhara |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of the People's New Party 2009–2012 |
Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Policy Affairs Research Council Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party 1999–2001 |
Succeeded by |
| Preceded by
Takami Etō |
Chairman of Shisuikai (Kamei faction) 2003–2005 |
Succeeded by
Bunmei Ibuki |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Oldest member of the House of Representatives of Japan 2014–2017 |
Succeeded by |
| International |
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| National |
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| Academics |
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