Yukio Edano
枝野 幸男
Edano in 2020
Leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party
In office
2 October 2017 – 12 November 2021
DeputyAkira Nagatsuma
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byKenta Izumi
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
In office
12 September 2011 – 26 December 2012
Prime MinisterYoshihiko Noda
Preceded byYoshio Hachiro
Succeeded byToshimitsu Motegi
Chief Cabinet Secretary
In office
4 January 2011 – 2 September 2011
Prime MinisterNaoto Kan
Preceded byYoshito Sengoku
Succeeded byOsamu Fujimura
Minister of State for Government Revitalisation
In office
27 June 2011 – 2 September 2011
Prime MinisterNaoto Kan
Preceded byRenhō
Succeeded byRenhō
Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs
In office
14 January 2011 – 2 September 2011
Prime MinisterNaoto Kan
Preceded bySumio Mabuchi
Succeeded byTatsuo Kawabata
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Acting
7 March 2011 – 9 March 2011
Prime MinisterNaoto Kan
Preceded bySeiji Maehara
Succeeded byTakeaki Matsumoto
Minister of State for Government Revitalisation
In office
10 February 2010 – 8 June 2010
Prime MinisterYukio Hatoyama
Preceded byYoshito Sengoku
Succeeded byRenhō
Member of the House of Representatives
Assumed office
19 July 1993
Constituency
Personal details
Born (1964-05-31) 31 May 1964
Utsunomiya, Japan
Political partyCDP
Other political
affiliations		JNP (1992–1994)
NFP (1994–1998)
DPJ (1998–2016, merger)
DP (2016–2017, split)
SpouseKazuko Edano
Children2
Alma materTohoku University
Websitewww.edano.gr.jp

Yukio Edano (枝野 幸男, Edano Yukio, born 31 May 1964) is a Japanese politician who served as the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan from its formation in 2017 until 2021.[1] A member of the House of Representatives in the Diet since 1993, he served as Chief Cabinet Secretary and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government from 2010 to 2012.[2]

Following the CDP's poor performance in the 2021 general election, Edano announced on 2 November his intention to resign as leader of the party, triggering a leadership election.[3]

Early life

Edano was born in Utsunomiya on 31 May 1964, into a salary-man family. He is named after Japanese progressive liberal political figure Yukio Ozaki, who Edano's father admired. He attended Utsunomiya City Mine Elementary School and Utsunomiya City Yoto Junior High School, serving as the student council president at both.[4] Edano graduated from Tohoku University with a degree in law, and passed the Japanese bar examination at the age of 24.[5]

Political career

In 1992, Morihiro Hosokawa founded the Japan New Party. Edano, who had found a job in Tokyo as a lawyer, found himself drawn to Hosokawa's words of idealism and anti-corruption, as Edano had maintained an interest in politics since he was young. After the New Party announced an open call for candidates to the Japanese House of Representatives before the 1993 general election, Edano applied to become a candidate for the party.[6] After the JNP had screened down 150 candidates to about 15 people, Edano had passed, and it was soon after announced he would be the JNPs candidate for the Saitama 5th district.[7]

He initially struggled; lacking funding, political experience, and a rushed schedule due to his initial expectation for the House to be dissolved in the fall instead of June, he resorted to delivering speeches on the side of the road in the morning, a similar strategy to that used by Yoshihiko Noda. He placed second but was still elected, falling slightly behind Kiyoshi Ueda.[8][9]

After the election, the Hosokawa Cabinet, the first since the 1950s not to include the LDP, was formed. Edano became a member of the Commerce and Industry Committee, and helped to craft a Product Liability Act.[10] However, the Hosokawa Cabinet was cut short by a campaign finance scandal which led to the collapse of the cabinet, and Hosokawa resigned. He voted for Tsutomu Hata in the next prime minister election, believing the LDP should be blocked from forming a government at all costs.[10] Following this, Edano opposed the formation of a new parliamentary group made up of all parties outside of the Socialists and LDP, and thus left the JNP to form his own parliamentary group briefly, known as "Democratic Wind". He shortly after joined the New Party Sakigake, and opposed the motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata, which divided the Sakigake group.[11][12]

As a legislator, Edano played a role in the government response to the HIV-tainted blood scandal of 1995 and the financial industry reorganization of 1998.[5]

Edano was appointed as the secretary general of the DPJ in March 2010 when it was the country's ruling party. Katsuya Okada, the former Foreign Minister, subsequently replaced him in September 2010.

Chief Cabinet Secretary

With James Steinberg on 27 January 2011

In January 2011, Edano became Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Kan Cabinet.[13] In March 2011, he was temporarily appointed head of the Foreign Ministry.[14]

In the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, he was the face of the government efforts to combat the aftermath, frequently appearing on television to talk about the problems at the two reactor facilities in Fukushima. Because of the frequency of his appearances, Twitter users concerned with his health were prompted to post messages asking him to get some sleep. The Twitter hashtag "#edano_nero" became popular, from the imperative word for sleep! (寝ろ, nero) in Japanese.[15][16]

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry

As economy minister in the Noda Cabinet, Edano approved the introduction of feed-in tariffs on 18 June 2012, whereby a percentage of energy use fees are used to subsidize (a shift to) renewable energy.[17]

Post-cabinet

15 July 2013

Edano left the Cabinet following the DPJ's defeat in the December 2012 general election, but retained his seat representing the Saitama 5th district.

Edano was named secretary general of the DPJ in September 2014. He retained this position in the Democratic Party following the merger of the DPJ with the Japan Innovation Party in March 2016.[18]

DP leader Renho resigned in July 2017 after the party suffered a poor result in the 2017 Tokyo assembly election. With the liberal wing of the party losing clout due to the influx of conservative Japan Innovation Party members after the merger, Edano only managed to garner 40% of the points up for grabs in the election.[19] In an attempt to unify the party, the freshly-elected leader Maehara appointed Edano as the deputy president.[20]

Constitutional Democratic Party

Edano on 18 October 2020

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a surprise announcement for a snap election on 25 September 2017, only three weeks after the DP leadership election. With the party unprepared and in disarray, Maehara was scrambling to find a way to shore up support for the party. At the same day as Abe's election announcement, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike launched a new conservative party called Kibō no Tō (Party of Hope). Seeing Koike's high popularity at that time as a potential asset, Maehara coordinated with Koike on DP candidates' nominations for the election. Koike agreed to endorse DP candidates and Maehara effectively disbanded the party in order to allow the candidates run under the Kibō banner. However, despite Maehara's request, Koike imposed an ideological filter that effectively barred liberal-leaning members of the DP, such as Edano, from joining Kibō. Edano then decided to form a separate party to house liberal DP members rejected by Koike.[21]

On 2 October 2017, Edano founded the Constitutional Democratic Party as a split from the Democratic Party, becoming the party's leader.[22] Despite being formed only less than three weeks before the election, the CDP ran a very efficient campaign with a principled platform and used social media in a level unprecedented in Japanese politics.[23][24] Edano led the party to become the second largest party in the Diet in the general election.

He won the 2020 Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leadership election, before resigning following the 2021 Japanese general election.[25] In 2023, after three years of serving without a party position, it was rumored he wanted to take back leadership of the CDP following Kenta Izumi's failure to recapture momentum in the party. He released a revised version of the "Edano Vision", a manifesto he published when he served as party leader, in August 2023.[26]

Political views

Edano has described himself as both liberal and conservative, believing the labels do not conflict with one another. He supports separate surnames for married couples.[27]

Controversy

On March 27, 2010, on the centennial of Japan–Korean annexation, Yukio Edano, then Japanese Minister of State for Government Revitalization, stated that "The invasion and colonization of China and Korea was historically inevitable ... since China and Korea could not modernize themselves."[28]

Family

Edano is married and has twin sons.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Edano's new liberal party to field more than 50 candidates in Lower House election". October 4, 2017 – via Japan Times Online.
  2. ↑ Reuters, "Japan picks Edano as trade min after predecessor gaffe", 11 September 2011
  3. ↑ "CDP leader Yukio Edano to quit post after poor election results". The Japan Times. November 2, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  4. ↑ "少年時代から政治志す 宇都宮出身の枝野民主党新幹事長". 下野新聞. June 8, 2010. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  5. 1 2 3 "Yukio Edano Profile". Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  6. ↑ 毎日新聞取材班. 枝野幸男の真価. 毎日新聞出版. ISBN 978-4-620-32513-2.
  7. ↑ 『Asahi Shimbun, April 14, 1993 morning edition, page 7, "Japan New Party Announces Open Candidates."
  8. ↑ 大下英治. 枝野立つ！立憲民主党のさらなる闘い. 河出書房新社. ISBN 978-4-309-24846-2.
  9. ↑ 《THE JOURNAL》編集部 (December 12, 2009). "政治家に訊く：枝野幸男". THE JOURNAL. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  10. 1 2 {{cite book|author = 枝野幸男|year = 1998|title = それでも政治は変えられる 市民派若手議員の奮闘記|publisher = マネジメント伸社|pages = 214p|isbn = 4-8378-0393-8}
  11. ↑ "日本新離党さらに二人". 朝日新聞. May 20, 1994. p. 1.
  12. ↑ "揺らぐ党内結束 背景に小選挙区 自社、不信任案に賛否". 朝日新聞. June 14, 1994. p. 2.
  13. ↑ "Kan revamps cabinet to boost his popularity". Japan Today. Kyodo News. January 14, 2011. Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Edano named as temporary minister: Kan". The Japan Times. March 8, 2011. Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  15. ↑ "Tireless Edano Earns Twitter Respect". The Wall Street Journal. March 14, 2011. Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  16. ↑ "Japan earthquake: Yukio Edano, the 'Jack Bauer' of the crisis". The Telegraph. March 15, 2011. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  17. ↑ Gerhardt, Tina (July 22, 2012). "Japan's People Say NO to Nuclear Energy". Alternet.
  18. ↑ "Okada to appoint Edano as secretary-general of new Democratic Party". The Mainichi. March 24, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Long-suffering Democratic Party elects Maehara". Asahi Shimbun. September 1, 2017. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Ex-prosecutor to be tapped for Democratic Party's No. 2 slot". Asahi Shimbun. September 3, 2017. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  21. ↑ "Edano plans to form new party as liberal force in election". Asahi Shimbun. October 2, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  22. ↑ "2017 Lower House Election / Edano announces launch of new party of liberals". Yomiuri Shimbun.
  23. ↑ Martin, Alex; Kikuchi, Daisuke (October 22, 2017). "Top opposition forces see contrasting fates after poll". Japan Times. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  24. ↑ Penn, Michael (November 3, 2017). "The Reversal of Fortune". Shingetsu News Agency. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  25. ↑ "合流新党、代表選は立憲vs国民 枝野氏・泉氏一騎打ち：朝日新聞デジタル". 朝日新聞デジタル (in Japanese). Retrieved June 1, 2022.
  26. ↑ Jiji, Staff Report (October 1, 2023). "Yukio Edano moves to return as CDP leader". Retrieved October 6, 2023.
  27. ↑ Soredemo seiji wa kaerareru : Shiminha wakate giin no funsenki. Yukio Edano, 幸男 枝野. マネジメント伸社. 1998. ISBN 4-8378-0393-8. OCLC 676160904.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  28. ↑ "되풀이되는 日 고위직 망언 구제불능인가" [Are the repeated controversial remarks of high-ranking Japanese officials beyond redemption?]. Editorial. Seoul Shinmun (in Korean). March 29, 2010. Retrieved January 2, 2016.

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