Is this the poster child of unhappy final stage capitalism, the face of ugly multinational corporate destruction of our frail planet? Does he belong on posters and memes and images on the side of government buildings? You tell me, my friends.
The unhappy, unethical, hapless YOSHIMASA HAYASHI, Japanese Chief Cabinet Officer, is a Harvard MBA. Big surprise.
Look into that mean pinched bureaucratic face. Think of the millions the Japanese tortured, fire-bombed, enslaved, prostituted and conquered before proud Americans ended their empire. Footnote: My father, Ed Slavin, Sr., a proud Polish American, volunteered to fight Japanese imperialism the day after the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. (Rejected by the Army for being colorblind, my dad volunteered for the 82nd ABN DIVN, helping liberate North Africa, Sicily and Normandy, including the first French town liberated from Hitler, before the sun rose on D-Day.)
Americans subject to foreign investment from clearcutting fools: Do you the enjoy St. Johns County's abusive rule of corporate tools?
We reject clearcutting and corruption.
Fools like Senator-developer TRAVIS JAMES HUTSON, YOSHIMASA HAYASHI, and other feckless reckless feculent fools, tools and asinine advocates of unregulated unctuous money-grubbing and destruction of our planet?
Who among us wants rough beasts like Yoshimasa Hayashi, and their fetid fringe fellow greedheads, to destroy ecosystems?
Somewhat more sentient countries, without PR propaganda, would ever choose to destroy our planet and attack our human and natural rights?
Look into the evasive eyes of the man who would sentence the world's whales to death, make money from it, and imprison people for criticizing Japan's sinful willful heedless destruction of whales. Pray for Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary. From The Washington Post:
"In a news briefing Wednesday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi called Denmark’s decision “very regrettable” and said his government communicated its position to Danish officials. Hayashi said that the activities of Watson and others damaged Japan’s whaling industry and that the nation 'will continue to take necessary and adequate actions.'”
Washington Post
Listen to this yappy yoyo, member of a longtime government bureaucratic family. From his quote, this hopelessly hapless Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, reminds me of the old saw about who sounds like the proverbial diplomat "sent abroad to lie for his country."
Laugh at the yoyo. Share their shame.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary actually said whaling activists "damaged the Japanese whaling industry." Oh, was there martyrdom involved?
Three cheers for "damaging the Japanese whaling industry!" That is something that I so proudly helped to do with all my heart and all my soul as a Georgetown University undergraduate intern in the office of Senator Ted Kennedy (Best.Senator.Ever.) It all happened in the mailroom of Sen. Ted Kennedy.
A call went out from the main office on the fourth floor of the Senator's main office in the Richard Russell Senate Building (Old S.O.B.) to send "Fast Eddie" (that was the EMK staff nickname for me in 1974-76). The call was to send an intern to help a young legislative assistant, the first woman LA.
My mentor, the late Marty Murtagh, was a young Georgetown-educated recent law graduate lawyer from Michigan, who began work for EMK (as did I) as a mailroom volunteer). Mary Murtagh was Massachusetts Democratic United States Senator Ted Kennedy's incomparable legislative assistant for Cape Cod and Islands legislation and helped enact the 200 mile fishing limit. I learned so much from Mary Murtagh, whose funeral oration was given by Sen. Ted Kennedy. When I was a mere stripling, a beardless youth of 19, Mary recruited me to help EMK and her stop world whaling. My research for EMK and Mary Murtagh helped guide them to support development of an oilseed crop, jojoba, which is an exact duplicate for the oil of the endangered sperm whale. It worked. God created sperm whales, a beautiful sentient species, which nearly became extinct due to humankind's unkind fetish with getting rich off what became, in the industrial age, a much-prized oil in their heads. Sperm whale meat is inedible. Once EMK, Mary, et al. encouraged jojoba, with some research, phone calls and conferences, jojoba took over the market. Free markets worked, for a change. Yes, my friends, the world no longer needed sperm whale oil. Jojoba is an exact duplicate for the oil of the endangered sperm whale: dig it! No more sperm whales are slaughtered to oil the engines of the world (or Russian nuclear weapons). Looking to Japan to get past the rough beasts who controlled its whaling industry and anti-conservation policy. Disgusted that Paul Watson spent time in prison for his criticism and activism directed at preserving, protecting and defending the rights of these magnificent sentient creatures.
Yoshimasa Hayashi
Yoshimasa Hayashi | |
|---|---|
林 芳正 | |
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Chief Cabinet Secretary | |
| Assumed office 14 December 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Fumio Kishida Shigeru Ishiba |
| Preceded by | Hirokazu Matsuno |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 10 November 2021 – 13 September 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Fumio Kishida |
| Preceded by | Toshimitsu Motegi Fumio Kishida (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Yoko Kamikawa |
| Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology | |
| In office 3 August 2017 – 2 October 2018 | |
| Prime Minister | Shinzō Abe |
| Preceded by | Hirokazu Matsuno |
| Succeeded by | Hiroshi Moriyama |
| Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries | |
| In office 23 February 2015 – 7 October 2015 | |
| Prime Minister | Shinzō Abe |
| Preceded by | Koya Nishikawa |
| In office 26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Shinzō Abe |
| Preceded by | Akira Gunji |
| Succeeded by | Koya Nishikawa |
| Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy | |
| In office 2 July 2009 – 16 September 2009 | |
| Prime Minister | Taro Aso |
| Preceded by | Kaoru Yosano |
| Succeeded by | Naoto Kan |
| Minister of Defense | |
| In office 2 August 2008 – 24 September 2008 | |
| Prime Minister | Yasuo Fukuda |
| Preceded by | Shigeru Ishiba |
| Succeeded by | Yasukazu Hamada |
| |
| Assumed office 3 November 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Takeo Kawamura |
| |
| In office 24 July 1995 – 16 August 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Ken'ichi Yamada |
| Succeeded by | Tsuneo Kitamura |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 January 1961 Shimonoseki, Japan |
| Political party | Liberal Democratic Party |
| Spouse | Yuko Hayashi |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Yoshiro Hayashi (father) Mariko Hayashi (mother) |
| Relatives | Reiko Hayashi (sister) Keisuke Hayashi (paternal grandfather) Heishiro Hayashi (great-great-grandfather) Katsusada Hirose (uncle-in-law) |
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo (LLB) Harvard University (MPA) |
| Website | Official website |
Yoshimasa Hayashi (林 芳正, Hayashi Yoshimasa, born 19 January 1961) is a Japanese politician who has been serving as Chief Cabinet Secretary since December 2023. Hayashi previously held five cabinet positions: Minister of Defence(August 2008–September 2008), Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy (July 2009–September 2009), Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries(December 2012–September 2014, February 2015–October 2015), Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (August 2017–October 2018), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (November 2021–September 2023) .
A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, Hayashi was first elected to the House of Councillors in 1995, where he served for five terms until 2021. He resigned from the House to stand in the 2021 general election and has been serving as a member of the House of Representatives, representing the Yamaguchi 3rd district, since October 2021.
Early life and education
Hayashi was born on 19 January 1961 in Tokyo to Yoshiro and Yoneko Hayashi. His father, Yoshiro Hayashi, was a senior bureaucrat at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.[1] The family moved to their ancestral home in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, when Yoshiro stood in the 32nd General Election in 1969, after which he successfully started his political career representing the Yamaguchi first constituency. Hayashi graduated from Shimonoseki-Nishi High School in 1979 and matriculated at the University of Tokyo.[2] At university, he chose to study public law at the Shingaku Furiwake (the specialisation selection process in the middle of the second year) and graduated from the Faculty of Law in 1984. At the university, he was a member of the university choir as well as a rock band.[3]
Initially, Hayashi had no intention of following in his father's footsteps as a member of parliament.[4] Instead, he joined Mitsui & Co., rather than pursuing a career in one of the government ministries, which was the typical path for someone of his political and educational background. However, a brief posting to Nicaragua to renew tobacco contracts exposed him to the effects of the ongoing civil war, which made him realise the importance of a stable government.[4] He also had several overseas postings, one of which was in North Carolina, United States, a major source of tobacco for Mitsui at the time.[5]
He decided to pursue a political career and resigned from his role at Mitsui in 1989. He married Yuko Hayashi in 1990, who also attended the University of Tokyo and graduated in 1988.[6] He started studying public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, while his wife studied for a master's degree in technology policy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[6]Both universities are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. In the United States, he also worked as a staffer for U.S. Representative Stephen L. Neal and U.S. Senator William V. Roth, Jr. As the latter's staffer, he initiated Mansfield Fellowship Program.[7]
Political career
As a member of the House of Councillors
Hayashi entered politics as a secretary to his father, Yoshiro Hayashi, when he was appointed Minister of Finance in the Miyazawa Cabinet after the first reshuffle in December 1992. Hayashi was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in 1995. Hayashi was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in 1995. He represents the fourth generation of politicians in his family. He focused on administrative and tax reform in the early years of his political career.[8] He joined the Kōchikai faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, which has traditionally held moderate conservative views, with an emphasis on economic prosperity, liberal values, and international cooperation, opposing the reliance on nationalism as an ideology. Both his father and former prime minister Kiichi Miyazawabelonged to this faction. He was appointed Parliamentary Vice Minister of Finance (大蔵政務次官) in October 1999, under Miyazawa, who was serving as Minister of Finance in the Obuchi Cabinet.[2]
Hayashi was appointed to the Cabinet for the first time as Minister of Defence on 1 August 2008, when there was a reshuffle of the Fukuda Cabinet.[9] However, Fukuda resigned on 24 September 2008, and Hayashi was replaced by Yasukazu Hamada.[10]After his party became the main opposition party in the 2009 general election, he served as the Shadow Minister of Finance.[1] He stood in the 2012 LDP presidential election, which was held just before a landslide victory in the 2012 general election allowed his party to return to power, but the eventual winner was Shinzo Abe. He was refused support by one MP who told him, 'The prime minister should belong to the Lower House because an Upper House premier does not risk his seat when calling an election'.[11]
As Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
In the Second Abe Cabinet, which was formed on 26 December 2012, Hayashi was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.[12][13] He remained in this role until 3 September 2014, when the Third Abe Cabinet was formed. When his successor Koya Nishikawahad to resign from his office following a scandal, Hayashi was asked to return to the ministry and served again as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from 23 February 2015 to 7 October 2015. With a shrinking domestic market, many of the agricultural policies under his leadership focused on making the industry more export-oriented. He promoted the 'FBI' strategy, which means promoting authentic cuisine from Japan overseas, fostering food businesses byJapanese companies overseas, and exporting foods made in Japan.[14] Food exports from Japan, which had remained stagnant at around 450 billion yen annually until 2012, increased to 745 billion yen by 2015.[15]
As Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
He was appointed Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on 3 August 2017 in a reshuffle of the Third Abe Cabinet. He remained in this position in the Fourth Abe Cabinet, which was formed in November the same year. He served until the Cabinet reshuffle in October 2018.[16]
As a member of the House of Representatives
Hayashi held a press conference on 15 July 2021 and announced his intention to stand as a candidate in the 2021 general election, which meant switching to the Lower House.[17] He resigned from the House of Councillors on 16 August 2021.[18] He faced opposition from the then-serving MP for Yamaguchi 3rd constituency, Takeo Kawamura, who was initially expected to remain the official LDP candidate with the backing of his faction leader, Toshihiro Nikai. On 29 September, Fumio Kishida, who also belongs to the Kōchikai faction and shares similar political views with Hayashi, won the 2021 LDP presidential election and became prime minister. Following this, the LDP’s Yamaguchi Local Committee asked to make Hayashi the official candidate, and after being persuaded by Akira Amari, who showed him secret survey results indicating Hayashi was more than twice as popular as Kawamura in the constituency, Kawamura decided not to stand in the election.[19] As the official LDP candidate, Hayashi won 77% of the votes and became a member of the House of Representatives.[20]
As Minister for Foreign Affairs
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In November 2021 he was appointed as the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Second Kishida Cabinet. Hayashi was the first Japanese foreign minister to attend a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels in April 2022.[21][22]
As Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hayashi left cabinet in the September 2023 reshuffle and became subcommittee chairman of the LDP Tax Commission, but in December he returned to cabinet as Chief Cabinet Secretary after the resignation of Hirokazu Matsuno.[23][24]
On 3 September 2024, Hayashi announced his campaign for LDP leadership.[25] He lost and was eliminated in the first round voting with 8.84% of votes, ranking the fourth. New Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba retained Hayashi as Chief Cabinet Secretary in his cabinet.
Personal life
He likes karaoke and golf. He plays the guitar and keyboard with LDP colleagues in a band called Gi!nz.[8]
References
- 林芳正事務所. "プロフィール | 林芳正 衆議院議員 - 林芳正 衆議院議員" (in Japanese). Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- 林芳正事務所. "プロフィール | 林芳正 衆議院議員 - 林芳正 衆議院議員" (in Japanese). Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "林芳正外務大臣の意外な欠点とは？ オペラを原語で歌えるのに…！". AERA dot. (アエラドット) (in Japanese). 28 December 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "林芳正参議院議員を招き、講演会を開催 企業人政治フォーラム速報 No.214｜経団連企業人政治フォーラム". www.bpf.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "山口日米協会". www.yjas.jp. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "林 裕子 | 研究者情報 | J-GLOBAL 科学技術総合リンクセンター". jglobal.jst.go.jp(in Japanese). Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- マンスフィールドフェローシッププログラムの思い出, 林芳正
- Japan Times, "Fukuda's new lineup", 3 August 2008.
- "Fukuda overhauls Cabinet / LDP executive shakeup also elevates Aso to party No. 2"Archived 3 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 2 August 2008.
- "Aso elected premier / Announces Cabinet lineup himself; poll likely on Nov. 2"Archived 28 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 25 September 2008.
- "次の首相へくら替え、「参院の壁」越え名乗り 林芳正 キーパーソンの冬". 日本経済新聞 (in Japanese). 27 December 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Yoshimasa HAYASHI Archived 26 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 28 November 2013
- Nationalism takes back seat to the economy Japan Times, 27 December 2012.
- "特集 日本の農林水産物・食品の輸出拡大に向けて ニッポンの食材、おいしいね！(2)：農林水産省". www.maff.go.jp. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "（1）農林水産物・食品の輸出促進：農林水産省". www.maff.go.jp. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "歴代文部科学大臣：文部科学省". www.mext.go.jp. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "林芳正氏が衆院くら替え表明 大物激突の保守分裂へ：朝日新聞デジタル". 朝日新聞デジタル (in Japanese). 15 July 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- 産経新聞 (16 August 2021). "自民・林元文科相が議員辞職 衆院選くら替えで". 産経新聞：産経ニュース (in Japanese). Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "衆院山口3区 大物対決分かれた明暗 政治の非情さ映し出す権力闘争：朝日新聞デジタル". 朝日新聞デジタル (in Japanese). 12 December 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "【2021年 衆院選】山口県(小選挙区)開票速報 | 朝日新聞デジタル | 衆議院選挙（2021年総選挙）特設サイト". 朝日新聞デジタル (in Japanese). Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- "Japan PM Kishida to tap ex-education minister Hayashi as foreign minister". The Mainichi. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 22 December2021.
- "Japan's top uniformed officer to attend 1st NATO military chiefs meeting". nikkei. 17 May 2022. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
- "自民税調、所得減税の議論開始 小委員長に林芳正前外相". The Nikkei (in Japanese). Tokyo. 23 October 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
- "官房長官に内定の林芳正・前外相「困難な状況の中で、持てる力をしっかり発揮するよう努力」". The Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Tokyo. 14 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
- "Yoshimasa Hayashi enters Japan LDP leadership race". Nikkei Asia. 3 September 2024.
External links
- Official website in Japanese.
- 1961 births
- Living people
- People from Shimonoseki
- University of Tokyo alumni
- Harvard Kennedy School alumni
- United States congressional aides
- Mitsui & Co.
- Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians
- Members of the House of Councillors (Japan)
- Ministers of defense of Japan
- Ministers of agriculture, forestry and fisheries of Japan
- Education ministers of Japan
- Culture ministers of Japan
- Science ministers of Japan
- Sports ministers of Japan
- Technology ministers of Japan
- Ministers for foreign affairs of Japan
- Chief Cabinet Secretaries of Japan
- Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2021–2024
- Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2024–
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