Yoshirō Mori

Yoshirō 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 starting at April 5, 2000 ending April 26, 2001. Described as having "the heart of a flea and the brain of a shark,"^[1][2] 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 as well as the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Union.

Early political life

Yoshiro Mori was born in present-day Nomi, Ishikawa, 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 union 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.

 Prime minister

Mori's predecessor, Keizō 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 a traditional Japanese funeral rite. The other world leaders present at the funeral, including former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, performed the ritual correctly.^{[citation needed]}
• At a meeting of Shinto leaders in Tokyo, Mori described Japan as "the nation of the deities, with the Emperor at its center." This "divine nation statement" stirred controversy in Japan, as the statement sounded like he was in support of offering the Emperor absolute power, which Emperor Showa explicitly renounced in the Ningen Sengen.^[3]
• During the election campaign of 2000, one of his most notable "slips 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 whom 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.” [1]
• Mori's biggest public relations disaster was to 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.^[4]
• Mori promised then newly elected ROC President Chen Shui-bian that he would celebrate if Chen won the 2000 presidential elections. This promise was not fulfilled until late 2003, at the time Chen was running for re-election to a second term.^{[citation needed]}

Mori was not particularly popular at any time during his term;^{[citation needed]} toward the end of his term, his approval rating dropped to single digits. 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.

 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.

Posted in: world leader (celebrity)