Tarō Asō

Tarō Asō (麻生 太郎) is a Japanese politician serving as the Vice President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2021.

Asō, a Catholic, was born in Iizuka in Fukuoka Prefecture on 20 September 1940.

His father, Takakichi Asō, was the chairman of the Aso Cement Company and a close associate of Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka; his mother Kazuko Asō was Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida's daughter.

Tarō is also a great-great-grandson of Ōkubo Toshimichi, one of the Three Great Nobles regarded as the main founders of modern Japan.

His younger sister, Nobuko, Princess Tomohito of Mikasa, is a cousin-in-law of Emperor Emeritus Akihito.

His wife, Chikako, is the third daughter of Prime Minister Zenkō Suzuki.

Asō graduated from the Faculty of Politics and Economics at Gakushuin University, and he later attended Stanford University and the London School of Economics, though he dropped out of Stanford at the request of his Anglophile grandfather Shigeru Yoshida on account of his "lousy Californian accent."

Asō initially took the examination at Sankei Shimbun, a newspaper company ran by Mizuno Shigeo, a friend of his father's, but chose to study abroad instead.

Working for the company, he lived in Brazil during the 1960s and became fluent in Portuguese.

After he returned to Japan from his studies abroad, he entered the Aso Industry Company in 1966.

For two years from 1970, he worked in the diamond mining industry in Sierra Leone as a local representative of the Asō family at a new mining area offered by a local authority after the nationalization of the diamond industry in the country.

He was forced to return to Japan at the outbreak of civil unrest in the country.

He served as president of the Aso Mining Company from 1973 to 1979.

He was also a member of the Japanese shooting team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and President of the Japan Junior Chamber in 1978.

Asō is affiliated with the openly historical negationist organization Nippon Kaigi.

Asō was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1979.

He joined the Cabinet of Jun'ichirō Koizumi in 2003 as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications.

He was the longest-serving Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in Japanese history, having previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2007 and as Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications from 2003 to 2005.

He leads the Shikōkai faction within the LDP.

On 31 October 2005, he became Minister for Foreign Affairs.

There has been some speculation that his position in the Cabinet was due to his membership in the Kōno Group, an LDP caucus led by pro-Chinese lawmaker Yōhei Kōno: by appointing Asō as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Koizumi may have been attempting to "rein in" Kōno's statements critical of Japanese foreign policy.

Asō was one of the final candidates to replace Koizumi as prime minister in 2006, but lost the internal party election to Shinzo Abe by a wide margin.

Both Abe and Asō are conservative on foreign policy issues and have taken confrontational stances towards some East Asian nations, particularly North Korea and, to a lesser extent, the People's Republic of China.

Abe was considered a more "moderate" politician than the more "hard-line" Asō, and led Asō in opinion polling within Japan.

Asō's views on multilateralism are suggested in a 2006 speech, "Arc of Freedom and Prosperity: Japan's Expanding Diplomatic Horizons".

Asō acknowledged that he would most likely lose to Fukuda, but said that he wanted to run so that there would be an open election, saying that otherwise LDP would face criticism for making its choice "through back-room deals".

In the President election, held on 23 September, Fukuda defeated Asō, receiving 330 votes against 197 votes for Asō.

Asō previously served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2008 to 2009 and as Deputy Prime Minister of Japan and Minister of Finance from 2012 to 2021.

He served in numerous ministerial roles before becoming Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2008, having also held that role temporarily in 2007.

He was later elected LDP President in September 2008, becoming Prime Minister the same month.

He led the LDP to the worst election result in its history a year later, marking only the second time in post-war Japan that a governing party had lost re-election, and resigned as the President of the party immediately afterwards.

He conceded in 2008 that his family had benefitted from forced labor during World War II, although he has refused to apologize for it.

Asō also had a reputation for political gaffes and controversial remarks.

He praised the Nazi Party for being able to stealthily modify the German constitution without alerting the general public, and once said "Hitler, who killed millions of people, was no good even if his motive was right".

He later retracted the latter remark.

On 1 August 2008, Fukuda appointed Asō as Secretary-General of LDP, a move that solidified Asō's position as the number two-man in the party.

Unexpectedly on 1 September 2008, Fukuda announced his resignation as Prime Minister.

After the LDP returned to government following the 2012 election under Shinzo Abe, Asō was appointed to the Cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, retaining those roles when Yoshihide Suga replaced Abe in 2020.

After Fumio Kishida was appointed Prime Minister in October 2021, Asō was moved to the role of Vice President of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Asō has been attached to a number of controversies in his career.