Shin Kanemaru and the Tragedy of Japan's Political System

U. Kruze

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781137457370
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

Shin Kanemaru (1914-1996) served as a key power broker at the national level in Japan from the 1970s until the early 1990s. He was at the heart of the '1955 system' of conservative political rule. Though never Prime Minister himself, he controlled or strongly influenced the administrations of five Japanese Prime Ministers.

1

The Young Kanemaru (1918–1958): Early Life and Career in Yamanashi Prefecture

Abstract: Kanemaru was a legacy child, born into a family that conferred wealth and privilege. Kanemaru’s arranged marriage to Reiko Misawa in 1942 linked his fortunes to one of Yamanashi’s more powerful families. Kanemaru escaped the ravages of World War II to become a successful businessman. Yamanashi prefecture in the postwar era (1945–1958), like Japan as a whole, became the venue for a political contest between a divided but assertive Left and conservatives of various persuasions. Following in the family business tradition, Kanemaru increased his involvement in local politics in the early 1950s, becoming an effective fundraiser. Key patrons like Tadahiko Natori and Hisatada Hirose bankrolled his successful campaign for national office in 1958 as a member of the Sato group of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Kruze, Uldis. Shin Kanemaru and the Tragedy of Japan’s Political System. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. DOI: 10.1057/9781137457370.0004.

Yamanashi prefecture in the early half of the 20th century

Yamanashi prefecture (one of Japan’s 47 prefectures, located about 100 miles west and south of Tokyo) was Shin Kanemaru’s home and political base. Agricultural, mountainous, and landlocked, Yamanashi bears close resemblance to America’s own state of West Virginia. Yamanashi and its society nurtured Kanemaru, shaped his values, molded his political style, and served as his launching pad into the world of national politics after World War II.

Representative political institutions arrived in Yamanashi only in 1890.¹ The first elections in the 1890s were limited to those males who had paid five yen in taxes in the prior year, restricting the electorate to less than half of one per cent of the population. Taisho democracy emerged in Yamanashi in the late 1920s, but Showa fascism cast a pall in the 1930s. Yamanashi politics was complicated and diverse. It was in this environment – economic, political, cultural, and social – that the Kanemaru family came into prominence after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 launched Japan into a new trajectory of modernization.

The Kanemaru family in Yamanashi prefecture

Shin Kanemaru’s grandfather and father played important roles in Yamanashi’s economic and political life during the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa eras.

Originally from Iino Village, Sounosuke Kanemaru (1862–1931), Shin’s grandfather, was adopted into the Kanemaru family in 1886. Sounosuke was politically active and served as a member of the village, district, and prefectural assemblies. He managed the family’s wine-making and sake-brewing business and later founded the Kofu Electric Train Corporation (subsequently known as the Kyonishi Electric Train Company). He also served as company president, member of the board, or founder of numerous local corporations such as Kyonishi Electric Corporation, Firebird Ridge Bank, the Farmer-Labor Bank, and the Yamanashi Silk Reeling Company.² In short, Sounosuke Kanemaru was one of the pioneers of modernization in Yamanashi prefecture during the Meiji era, bringing the “sprouts” of capitalism and modern technology to the people of the prefecture, and enriching himself in the process.

Shin’s father also had an outstanding career in politics and business. Yasuzo Kanemaru (1886–1975) came to the Kanemaru home in Imasuwa Village as an adoptee from the Yabe family, the village chiefs of Nishino Village.³ Yasuzo went on to serve as a member of the village council, as the head of the village association of Ketsuka, as a member of the Prefectural Assembly, as a member of the Prefectural Governor’s Advisory Council, and as “taisei” or Chief Executive. Yasuzo also served in various Yamanashi prefectural organizations. He was Executive Secretary, and later Vice President for numerous terms, of the Yamanashi Prefectural Fire Fighters Association and was the first group leader of the Prefectural publicly-organized Fire Fighting Association. He also served as the President of the Yamanashi Prefectural Traffic Safety Association. With regard to business ventures, Yasuzo Kanemaru managed the family wine-making and sake-distilling business. He served as the senior managing director of the Yamanashi Development Association. He was a board member of the Misaka Bus Company and the Kyonishi Electric Railroad Corporation (later known as the Yamanashi Electric Transportation Company). He was the President of the Hot Springs Development Corporation. Yasuzo’s list of accomplishments in both political and economic fields can be considered quite impressive.

Shin Kanemaru was born on September 17, 1914, on his family’s farm in Nakakomagun Suwa Village.⁴ Shin was the oldest son in a large family of twelve children. Despite his later assertions to the contrary (“I did not come from a wealthy family”), Kanemaru’s own Autobiography (published in 1988) reveals an early life of considerable privilege.⁵ Kanemaru enjoyed special sweets and fruit and appeared fat and chubby. When he failed his entrance exam to the middle school, his father had him eventually admitted.

Kanemaru’s military service (1937)

Kanemaru entered the Japanese army in February, 1937, and was assigned to the 2nd Middle Troop of the Third Company of the Kwantung Army in Manchuguo (Northeastern China). 1937, of course, was a fateful year in Sino-Japanese relations because Japan launched an all-out offensive into China with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 7, 1937. Kanemaru’s Autobiography offers only a few tantalizing anecdotes about his participation in this very historic series of events: he recalled in 1988 that his chest was so big that he couldn’t properly button his army-regulation uniform; that his unit shipped out to China from Ujina in Hiroshima; that he served as a radio operator on the front lines; and that he spent most of his time in rain-soaked trenches. Kanemaru apparently became ill, was shipped back to Shinkyo (the Japanese name for Shenyang) for treatment, and was miraculously discharged from further military service when the commanding officer of the hospital found that Shin was suffering from pleurisy. Of course, Kanemaru also did reveal in his Autobiography that the same commanding officer, Colonel Iino, had been a middle-school classmate of Shin’s own father, opening the road for speculation that Iino conveniently excused Shin on medical grounds for what would otherwise be simply a matter of favoritism for a middle-school friend’s son.⁶

Shin Kanemaru’s life during the war years (1937–1945)

By his own testimony, Kanemaru’s life during World War II was sweet. After returning from China, Shin spent time at his eldest sister Rei’s home at Hitachi Ota City in Ibaraki prefecture, going to the beaches and “enjoying the waves and breezes” along the shore. His father branched out into the bus transportation business and left sake brewing to Shin, asking only that his son give him 10,000 yen annually from the business. Kanemaru did so well in managing his family’s sake business that by 1941, he was able to build a magnificent house (a “cultural treasure,” he would call it) in Shirane-cho, with three truck-loads of hand-picked cedar (a meter thick and suffused with gray ripples) brought from Nagoya that became the pillars and hallways of his new mansion. The Yamanashi Sake Distillers Association noticed his success and named him to their Board in 1943 when Shin was either 28 or 29.⁷

In 1941, Shin Kanemaru (who was 26 or 27) married Reiko Misawa, age 20. Reiko came from a wealthy and prominent Yamanashi family. Her father, Kanazaki Misawa, served in the prefectural assembly, passing away in 1987.⁸ This was an arranged marriage promoted by his mother Toku. Shin and Reiko, however, did not hit it off. Kanemaru quickly became disenchanted with his new bride and took a mistress, ostensibly because he “envied” other wealthy men who did the same.⁹ However, within a year, Kanemaru (ostensibly because his “conscience” became involved) decided to end even this new relationship with his mistress (whose name he never reveals in his memoirs). Not only did Shin want to break off the relationship, but the young woman’s unexpected sudden death also plunged Shin into a dilemma. Who would take care of her funeral and pay the expenses? What should/would he do publicly? In his 1988 memoirs, he recalled the process of his thinking: “I am a man. And this relationship may affect my future generations. I will take the criticism, and will not mind if I become dirtied by criticism.”¹⁰ Kanemaru eventually conducted and paid for the funeral, yet showed little respect for his dead lover by having 150 geisha also attend the ceremony. As he comments, the funeral was “not quiet.” Even his benefactor, Tadahiko Natori of the Yamanashi Central Bank, criticized Kanemaru’s actions: “You are the kind of person who thinks he is hiding when he hides his face but you are really showing your buttocks.”¹¹

Despite Japan’s increasingly frequent military setbacks after 1942 and the downward spiral in living conditions that engulfed the average Japanese citizen, Kanemaru did not suffer, but rather prospered. As the fortunes of the war turned against Japan, the Tojo Government decided to consolidate and streamline various business operations, including the sake-brewing business, in order to more fully mobilize Japan’s resources. The plan was to reduce the number of sake breweries from 70 to 35 and shift the sale of rice from sake brewing to direct consumption. Naturally this confronted the Yamanashi Sake Brewer’s Association with a terrible dilemma: oppose the government and be tagged “unpatriotic,” or accede and lose one’s family business. Shin self-servingly reveals in his memoirs that the Dean of the Yamanashi Sake Brewers (Keiji Akiyama) was at a loss for what to do, and let Shin, though a youngster by Japanese standards, make the key decision.¹² Gathering together the leaders of the sake business, Shin announced that he would voluntarily close down his sake business, ostensibly because it would be “good for the country.”

Kanemaru’s “patriotic” decision, however, should not be taken at face value. At this crucial turning point, Kanemaru skillfully enlisted the support of a Diet (National Assembly) member, Shinzo Matsue, to re-direct his business career into manufacturing and industry. Kanemaru made Matsue the President of his new venture “Nitto Kogyo,” a company that made oxygen welding supplies and also airplane parts for the Showa Aircraft Company. Kanemaru did not have to worry about his payroll because Nitto Kogyo’s work force of 600 girls from Kyoma High School worked for peanuts since they were classified as apprentices and assigned to this job by the loca...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  The Young Kanemaru (19181958): Early Life and Career in Yamanashi Prefecture
• 2  Kanemaru as a Member of the National Diet (19581972)
• 3  Kanemaru as Cabinet Minister (19721978)
• 4  LDP Work Horse (19781986)
• 5  Stage Manager of Japans Bubble Economy Political World (19861989)
• 6  The King without a Crown (19891992)
• 7  Cracks Appear in Kanemarus Power Base: Yamanashi Prefecture in 1991
• 8  Skewered in Public, Humiliated Behind Bars (19921993): The Kingmaker Falls from Grace and Serves a Symbolic Penance
• 9  The Kanemaru Legacy
• Bibliography
• Index