Sōsuke Uno

Prime Minister of JapanIn office
3 June 1989 – 10 August 1989MonarchAkihitoPreceded byNoboru TakeshitaSucceeded byToshiki KaifuMinister for Foreign AffairsIn office
8 November 1987 – 3 June 1989Prime MinisterNoboru TakeshitaPreceded byTadashi KuranariSucceeded byHiroshi MitsuzukaMinister of International Trade and IndustryIn office
10 June 1983 – 27 November 1983Prime MinisterYasuhiro NakasonePreceded bySadanori YamanakaSucceeded byHikosaburo OkonogiDirector General of the Administrative Management AgencyIn office
9 November 1979 – 17 July 1980Prime MinisterMasayoshi ŌhiraPreceded byMotohiko KanaiSucceeded byYasuhiro NakasoneDirector General of the Science and Technology AgencyIn office
24 December 1976 – 28 November 1977Prime MinisterTakeo FukudaPreceded byMasao MaedaSucceeded byTasaburo KumagaiDirector General of the Japan Defense AgencyIn office
11 November 1974 – 9 December 1974Prime MinisterKakuei TanakaPreceded bySadanori YamanakaSucceeded byMichita SakataMember of the House of RepresentativesIn office
20 November 1960 – 20 October 1996 Personal detailsBorn(1922-08-27)27 August 1922
Moriyama, Shiga, Empire of JapanDied19 May 1998(1998-05-19) (aged 75)
Moriyama, Shiga, JapanPolitical partyLiberal Democratic PartySpouseChiyo UnoAlma materKobe University of CommerceSignatureMilitary careerAllegiance JapanService/branch Imperial Japanese ArmyYears of service1943–45RankSecond LieutenantBattles/warsSecond World War

• Soviet-Japanese War
  • Soviet invasion of Manchuria

Sōsuke Uno (宇野 宗佑, Uno Sōsuke, 27 August 1922 – 19 May 1998) was a Japanese politician who was briefly Prime Minister of Japan in 1989, the first Prime Minister who came from Shiga Prefecture. ^[1] A scandal exposed by the geisha Mitsuko Nakanishi contributed to his premature resignation from office after just sixty-eight days.

Early life and education

Uno was born in Moriyama, Shiga. His family owned a sake brewery called Arachō, and had served as town officials (Japanese: Toshiyori). The family had previously ran a hotel and a general store in his birth home.^[2]

In 1943, he graduated from Hikone Commercial College (later, Shiga University) where he led Hikone Commercial College to the national champion of Kendo among the commercial universities and colleges in Japan and attended the Kobe College of Commerce but had to leave the University two months later after the enrollment because he was called into the Imperial Japanese Army as an officer during World War II.^[1][3] After the war, he was sent to Siberia as a prisoner.^[1] He never came back to Kobe College of Commerce again.^[1]

As well as a politician, Uno was an accomplished writer, who wrote a book considered classic in Japan about his experiences as a prisoner of war in Siberia.

Political career

In 1960, he entered politics, winning election to the Diet of Japan. Six years later, he was promoted to Vice-Minister at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, then similar positions with the Science and Technology Agency, then the Administrative Agency until earning his place in Cabinet as Minister for Trade and Industry and then Foreign Secretary until he was Prime Minister. Whilst Foreign Secretary (in what were conflicted times) he was applauded for his tact as foreign secretary, navigating international demands for increased Japanese contributions to international commerce with stern loyalty to his own nation's interests.

In 1974, he served briefly as Director General of the Japan Defense Agency. As the Foreign Minister under then-Prime Minister Takeshita, Uno became the first Japanese Cabinet member to visit Israel since the 1973 oil crisis.^[4] Uno's career reached a peak in the most fraught times his party had seen, as he took the reins of his party after the Recruit Scandal, when 47 Japanese MPs (including mostly other members from his own Liberal Democrat Party) were found guilty of taking bribes and unfair trading. Of all prime-ministerial candidates, only Uno was free of blame from them, and he was given charge over the party, the government, and Japan. By this stage he had served his country for almost fifty years, and was placed in office on 3 June 1989.

Geisha affair

Uno encountered public scandal in 1989, when accused by the Geisha entertainer Mitsuko Nakanishi^[5][6] of being "immoral" and stingy in his financial support during their four-month affair in 1986. Nakanishi would claim in following newspaper interviews that Uno had treated older geisha with arrogance and contempt, had not paid the appropriate fee of ¥300,000 per month (roughly US$2,100 at the time) for her company of four months, and had not provided a traditional parting gift (a further monetary fee) as had been custom in geisha etiquette.

A Washington Post article published in July 1989 brought international attention to the affair,^[7] with some geisha denouncing Nakanishi as a whistleblower, effectively compromising the discreet nature of the profession and engaging with political and economic affairs in the public sphere. Nakanishi later quit the profession, remarried and divorced once, attended a Shingon Buddhist school temple in Shiga Prefecture, and held various secretarial jobs unrelated to the geisha community. Due to the severity of the scandal, Nakanishi's own son disowned her during this time.^{[citation needed]}

To avoid further scandal, Sōsuke Uno resigned as prime minister on 10 August 1989 after just 68 days in office, but continued to serve his country in various government posts until he retired fully in 1996. On 29 April 1994, he was awarded with the highest possible honour for a non-head-of-state, the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers.^[8]

Death

At 72 years of age, Uno then enjoyed a peaceful retirement in Moriyama city. He died on 19 May 1998 in his private home. He had two daughters from his wife, Mrs. Chiyo Uno. He published two collections of Haiku poems, as well as his book on prisonership in Siberia, along with painting, poetry, and music. A year later in 1999, his Geisha affair was highlighted in the Secret Life of Geisha, a TV documentary.^[9]

Honours

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers - (29 April 1994)

References

Further reading

• West, Mark D. (2006). Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States. Chicago University Press. ISBN 978-0-226-89408-9.

Party political offices
Preceded by Noboru Takeshita	Head of Youth Division, Liberal Democratic Party 1963–1966	Succeeded by Toshiki Kaifu
Preceded by Masumi Esaki	Head of Diet Affairs Committee, Liberal Democratic Party 1974–1976	Succeeded by Toshiki Kaifu
Preceded by Noboru Takeshita	President of the Liberal Democratic Party 1989	Succeeded by Toshiki Kaifu
Political offices
Preceded by Sadanori Yamanaka	Director General of the Japan Defense Agency 1974	Succeeded by Michita Sakata
Preceded by Masao Maeda	Director General of the Science and Technology Agency 1976–1977	Succeeded by Tasaburo Kumagai
Preceded by Motohiko Kanai	Director General of the Administrative Management Agency 1979–1980	Succeeded by Yasuhiro Nakasone
Preceded by Sadanori Yamanaka	Minister of International Trade and Industry 1983	Succeeded by Hikosaburo Okonogi
Preceded by Tadashi Kuranari	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1987–1989	Succeeded by Hiroshi Mitsuzuka
Preceded by Noboru Takeshita	Prime Minister of Japan 1989	Succeeded by Toshiki Kaifu