![]() ![]() Everywhere he goes, he talks about how in his distant hometown, local authorities had to get approval from Ministry of Transport officials in Tokyo to move a bus stop by a few yards. Hosokawa is the leading advocate here of the need to decentralize authority in order to improve living conditions. The new governor also strengthened environmental laws and was more forthcoming in dealing with victims of a famous mercury poisoning case, many of whom still had not been compensated for disfigurements they suffered from eating tainted fish in the 1950s and 1960s. Under Hosokawa, Kumamoto pursued an aggressive policy of economic development. Newspapers at the time reported that Hosokawa’s wife, Kayoko, campaigned more vigorously than the candidate himself-a rarity in a country where politicians’ wives seldom take an active public role in their husbands’ careers. Twelve years later, he was elected to head Kumamoto prefecture, becoming the youngest man ever to serve as a governor. In 1971, at age 33, he ran for the upper house on the LDP ticket and became that chamber’s youngest member. He first took a job as a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest newspapers, but says he saw the job as a steppingstone to politics. Born into a family of politicians, Hosokawa says he always wanted to go into politics. ![]()
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