Yohei Kono
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Yohei Kono (河野洋平, Kōno Yōhei, born January 15, 1937) is a Japanese politician. He was Deputy Prime Minister from 1994-95. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. He is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He was once President of the LDP from 1993 to 1995. As he is one of the pro-Chinese members of the LDP, he came under pressure domestically in the spring of 2005 when anti-Japanese movements in China became intense.
Mr. Kono is well known as a controversial figure within the so-called comfort women debate, for the official statement he made in 1993, when he was Chief Cabinet Secretary. In his statement he essentially admitted that the Japanese Imperial Army had been involved, directly and indirectly, in the establishment and of comfort facilities, and that coercion had been used in the recruitment and retention of the women. His subsequent call for historical research and education aimed at remembering the issue became the basis for addressing the subject of forced prostitution in school history textbooks.
To date, he has been the only president of the LDP not to serve as Prime Minister of Japan.
| Preceded by Koichi Kato |
Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan 1991–1992 |
Succeeded by Masayoshi Takemura |
| Preceded by Koji Kakizawa |
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan 1994–1996 |
Succeeded by Yukihiko Ikeda |
| Preceded by Masahiko Komura |
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan 1999–2001 |
Succeeded by Makiko Tanaka |
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