Yoshiro Mori

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Yoshiro Mori
85th and 86th Prime Minister of Japan
In office April 5, 2000 – April 26, 2001
Preceded by	Keizo Obuchi
Succeeded by	Junichiro Koizumi
Born	July 14, 1937 Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic Party
Spouse	Chieko
Religion	Shinto

Yoshiro Mori (森 喜朗 Mori Yoshirō, born July 14, 1937) is a Japanese politician who served as the 85th and 86th Prime Minister of Japan from April 5, 2000 to April 26, 2001. Commonly described as having "the heart of a flea and the brain of a shark," he was an unpopular prime minister mainly remembered today for his many gaffes and situationally inappropriate actions. He is currently President of the Japan Rugby Football Union.

Contents 1 Early political life 2 Prime Minister 3 Cabinets 4 Japanese Rugby 5 External links

[edit] Early political life

Yoshiro Mori was born in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, as the son of Shigeki and Kaoru Mori, wealthy rice farmers with a history in politics, as both his father and grandfather served as the mayor of Neagari, Ishikawa Prefecture. His mother died when Yoshiro was seven years old.

He studied at the Waseda University in Tokyo, joining the rugby club. Afterwards he joined the Sankei Shimbun, a conservative newspaper in Japan. In 1962 he left the newspaper and became secretary of a Diet member, and in 1969 he was elected in the lower house at age 32. He was reelected 10 consecutive times. In 1980 he was involved in the Recruit scandal about receiving unlisted shares of Recruit Cosmos before they were publicly traded, and selling them after they were made public for a profit of approximately 1 million dollars. He was education minister in 1983 and 1984, International trade and industry minister in 1992 and 1993, and construction minister in 1995 and 1996.

[edit] Prime Minister

Mori's predecessor, Keizo Obuchi, suffered a stroke on April 2, 2000 and was unable to continue this office. Therefore, Mori, who was the secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), became the prime minister.

His position in Office was marred with a long list of faux-pas, unpopular decisions, PR mistakes and gaffes:

• One of the earliest occurred at Obuchi's funeral, when Mori failed to clap and bow properly before Obuchi's shrine, an important portion of the Buddhist funeral rite. The other world leaders present at the funeral performed the ritual correctly.
• On meeting President Bill Clinton in the 26th G8 summit in Okinawa Prefecture, he asked Clinton "Who are you?", with the intention of saying "How are you?". Since Clinton thought it was a joke, "I'm Hillary's husband, and you?" Clinton answered to him in English. And then, Yoshiro Mori answered "Me, too". [1]
• At a meeting of Shinto leaders in Tokyo, Mori described Japan as "a nation of gods with the Emperor at its center." This "divine nation statement" stirred up great controversy in Japan.
• During the election campaign of 2000, one of his most notable "slip of the tongue" happened in a speech in Niigata on June 20. When asked about recent newspaper reports that showed that roughly half of the voters still had not decided who to vote for, he replied “If they still have no interest in the election, it would be all right if they just slept in on that [election] day.”[2]
• Mori's biggest public relations disaster was to calmly continue a round of golf after receiving the news that the US submarine USS Greeneville had accidentally hit and sunk the Japanese fishing ship Ehime Maru during an emergency surface drill on February 9, 2001, resulting in 9 dead students and teachers.

Mori was not particularly popular at any time during his term: toward the end of his term, his approval rating dropped to single digits. In fact, the people of Ishikawa, his home prefecture, referred to him as "the shame of Ishikawa" (石川の恥), partly because even though he was prime minister, he was unable to get the planned extension of the Shinkansen to run as far as Ishikawa. He was replaced by Junichiro Koizumi on April 26, 2001.

Mori remains a member of the House of Representatives, representing the Second District of Ishikawa. He is married to Chieko (born: Chieko Maki), a fellow Waseda University student, and he has a son, Yūki Mori, and a daughter, Yoko Fujimoto. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, in 2004.

[edit] Cabinets

Mori appointed three cabinets. The third cabinet is officially referred to as a continuation of the second cabinet, as the changes came amid a major administrative realignment in January 2001 that eliminated several cabinet positions and renamed several key ministries.

Cabinets of Yoshiro Mori

	First Cabinet (April 2000)	Second Cabinet (July 2000)	Second Cabinet, Realigned (Jan. 2001)
Chief Cabinet Secretary and Okinawa Development	Mikio Aoki	Yasuo Fukuda	Chief Cabinet Secretary	Yasuo Fukuda
			Administrative Reform, Okinawa and Northern Territories	Ryutaro Hashimoto
Foreign Affairs	Yohei Kono	Yohei Kono	Yohei Kono
Justice	Hideo Usui	Okiharu Yasuoka	Masahiko Komura
Finance	Kiichi Miyazawa	Kiichi Miyazawa	Kiichi Miyazawa
Education	Hirofumi Nakasone	Tadamori Oshima	Nobutaka Machimura
Health and Welfare	Yuya Niwa	Yuji Tsushima	Health, Labor and Welfare	Chikara Sakaguchi
Labor	Takamori Makino	Yoshio Yoshikawa
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries	Tokuichiro Tamazawa	Yoichi Tani	Yoshio Yatsu
International Trade and Industry	Takashi Fukaya	Takeo Hiranuma	Economy, Trade and Industry	Takeo Hiranuma
Transport	Toshihiro Nikai	Hajime Morita	Land, Infrastructure and Transport	Chikage Ogi
Construction	Masaaki Nakayama	Chikage Ogi
Home Affairs	Kosuke Hori	Mamoru Nishida	Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications	Toranosuke Katayama
Posts and Telecommunications	Eita Yashiro	Kozo Hirabayashi
Management and Coordination Agency	Kunihiro Tsuzuki	Kunihiro Tsuzuki
Japan Defense Agency	Tsutomu Kawara	Kazuo Torashima	Toshitsugu Saito
Economic Planning Agency	Taichi Sakaiya	Taichi Sakaiya	Economic and Fiscal Policy	Taro Aso
Environment	Kayoko Shimizu	Yoriko Kawaguchi	Yoriko Kawaguchi
Financial Reconstruction	Sadakazu Tanigaki	Hideyuki Aizawa	Financial Affairs	Hakuo Yanagisawa
			National Public Safety Commission	Bunmei Ibuki
			Council for Science and Technology Policy	Takashi Sasagawa

[edit] Japanese Rugby

Mori played the game of rugby union at Waseda University and developed a passion for it there, though he was never a high-level player. In June 2005 he became President of the Japan Rugby Football Union and it had been hoped his clout would help secure the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup for Japan, but instead the event was awarded to New Zealand in late November 2005.

[edit] External links

• Official website (in Japanese)

Preceded by Mikio Aoki

Chair of the G8 2000

Succeeded by Giuliano Amato

Preceded by Keizo Obuchi

Prime Minister of Japan 2000-2001

Succeeded by Junichiro Koizumi

v • d • e	Prime Ministers of Japan
Itō · Kuroda · Yamagata · Matsukata · Itō (2nd) · Matsukata (2nd) · Itō (3rd) · Okuma · Yamagata (2nd) · Itō (4th) · Katsura · Saionji · Katsura (2nd) · Saionji (2nd) · Katsura (3rd) · Yamamoto · Okuma (2nd) · Terauchi · Hara · Takahashi · To. Kato · Yamamoto (2nd) · Kiyoura · Ta. Kato · Wakatsuki · G. Tanaka · Hamaguchi · Wakatsuki (2nd) · Inukai · Saitō · Okada · Hirota · Hayashi · Konoe · Hiranuma · N. Abe · Yonai · Konoe (2nd) · Tojo · Koiso · K. Suzuki · Prince Higashikuni · Shidehara · Yoshida · Katayama · Ashida · Yoshida (2nd) · Hatoyama · Ishibashi · Kishi · Ikeda · Sato · K. Tanaka · Miki · Fukuda · Ohira · Z. Suzuki · Nakasone · Takeshita · Uno · Kaifu · Miyazawa · Hosokawa · Hata · Murayama · Hashimoto · Obuchi · Mori · Koizumi · S. Abe

Persondata
NAME	Yoshiro Mori
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	森 喜朗; Mori Yoshirō
SHORT DESCRIPTION	86th Prime Minister of Japan
DATE OF BIRTH	July 14, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH