Uncovering Aso’s Ancestor Network with Prominent Family Background

　　On September 24th, at the Prime Minister’s residence in Tokyo, Japan, the newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso expounded his ruling philosophy at the first press conference after forming a cabinet, and answered questions from reporters. On the same day, Aso was elected as the new Prime Minister of Japan and formed a new cabinet.

　　Compared with other western leaders, the frequent change of Japanese prime minister is very abrupt. In the 38 years from 1955 to 1993, there were 16 prime ministers in Japan, and in the 15 years after 1993, Japan replaced 9 prime ministers, including Fukuda. During this period, Japan changed its prime minister every year except Junichiro Koizumi, who was in power for five years and five months.

　　However, what is more distinctive than the dazzling change of prime minister is the long-standing and strong hereditary style in Japanese politics. Well, from 1991, when Kiichi Miyazawa became prime minister, of the 10 prime ministers so far, only Tomiichi Murayama has no family political background, and the others have more or less political relatives. This situation has reached a certain extreme level by the 92nd Prime Minister, Taro Aso. By analyzing Taro Aso’s intricate clan relationship network, it is not difficult to understand the mystery of victory in Japan’s political power struggle, which seems accidental but inevitable.

　　Haomen network

　　Aso has a prominent family background. His grandfather is Ji Tianmao, the 45th Prime Minister of Japan, his father-in-law Zenkō Suzuki is the 70th Prime Minister of Japan, and Aso’s sister Noko is the princess of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, the younger brother of Emperor Akihito of Japan. In addition, Taro Aso is somewhat related to former Japanese Prime Ministers Ryutaro Hashimoto, Shinzo Abe and Kiichi Miyazawa. The granddaughter of Taro Hashimoto’s grandmother Haruko’s brother, Kyuro Gana, is the wife of Ryutaro Hashimoto, and the husband of Ji Tianmao’s eldest daughter, Haruko, is the cousin of Shinzo Abe’s grandfather, former Japanese Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke, and the wife of his brother-in-law Suzuki Shunichi is the cousin (or cousin) of Kiichi Miyazawa, and so on.

　　In Japanese society, which pays great attention to personal connections and family background, these intertwined and important relationships are the best capital for Aso’s political career. It is very interesting that both Taro Aso and his grandfather Ji Tianmao became Japanese prime ministers at the age of 68. It is a coincidence of fate or the intention of supporters. No one can say clearly, but one thing is certain. This is the dazzling aura of prominent family background, which has added a lot of light to Aso and made Aso even more powerful in politics.

　　The birth of a prominent family also prepared a solid economic foundation for Aso. Taro Aso’s great-grandfather, Taj Aso, ran a coal mine in the early Meiji period and became one of the three major coal mine chaebols in Kyushu. Later, he expanded into the fields of railways, electricity and finance, and became a rich man. As a descendant, Aso’s growth in the future is quite blessed by his ancestors’ inheritance.

　　Aso was born in Iizuka City, Fukuoka Prefecture in 1940. In the third grade of primary school, he came to Tokyo and went to a school specially for royal children. In 1963, Aso graduated from the Department of Politics and Economics of the University of Learning, and later went to the Graduate School of Stanford University and the London School of Economics and Political Science to study abroad. In 1966, he worked in his own enterprise, hemp production, and in 1973, he became the president of Aso Cement (now Aso Co., Ltd.). Aso was very handsome when he was president. He insisted on his favorite shooting practice and achieved impressive results. In 1976, he actually became a Japanese skeet shooter in the Olympic Games, but his performance was not good, ranking only 41st.

　　Prime Minister "Yafu"

　　Many industrialists will have political demands after their economic success, and entrepreneurs with political backgrounds are more interested in business and excellence. Aso is no exception. In 1979, Aso was elected as a member of the House of Representatives and stepped into politics.

　　Aso has always been one of the few richest parliamentarians. In October 2008, Japanese cabinet members declared their assets, and Aso’s assets were 403.95 million yen (about 28 million yuan), six times that of former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, ranking second in the cabinet, second only to General Affairs Minister Kunio Hatoyama. In addition, Aso has a three-story mansion with a small ocean building in Kamiyama-CHO, Shibuya District, covering an area of 2,400 square meters. In Tokyo, where land is precious, this land alone is worth more than 5 billion yen (about 347 million yuan). When Taro Aso’s father, Taro Aso, was alive, there was a special chef at home to cook French food for him. In his hometown, Iizuka City, there is a homestead of 20,000 ping (one ping is 3.3058 square meters).

　　The solid economic foundation has enabled Aso to have sufficient funds for activities. Since 2008, Yasuo Fukuda’s support rate has been declining, and Aso has sought support everywhere to replace Fukuda. It is reported that he often invites parliamentarians to dinner. Japanese people invite people to eat privately, and it is strictly forbidden to use public funds. They all pay for themselves, while prices in Japan are relatively expensive, and most people rarely invite people to eat. But not for Taro Aso, who is quite rich. As long as it is politically necessary, spending money is not a problem. After taking over from Yasuo Fukuda as prime minister in October, Aso, who belongs to the petty faction, often invited people to drink and eat in bars and high-class hotels such as Imperial Hotel, Okura Hotel and Shinotani Hotel in order to get more support.

　　When a reporter thought it was "divorced from the common people", Aso replied, "The bar in the hotel is safe and cheap, but fortunately I have money myself", and "the security required to go to an ordinary store and the media attracted will inevitably hinder its normal business". At the same time, Aso questioned the reporter in a tough tone: "Listen, do you have the heart to hinder business? Answer me! "

　　Aso went to the "Golden Lion" bar of the Imperial Hotel three times within one month after he became prime minister. The membership fee of the bar was 525,000 yen (100 yen is about RMB 6.9 yuan), and the annual membership fee was 126,000 yen. He spent at least 100,000 yen with several people at a time. Not only does the opposition party criticize this, but some people in the ruling party don’t like it. They think that "although Aso dressed up as a subaltern, the move itself stripped him of his painting."

　　But in any case, Aso’s activities can narrow the distance with other political figures and win enough support at the crucial time. In this sense, a solid economic foundation has really helped him to become prime minister.

　　Get into trouble because of words

　　However, Aso’s political career was not very smooth, except that he was once defeated in the election of members of the House of Representatives after entering politics, and he only succeeded in striking the throne of the Prime Minister four times. In fact, Aso’s first two defeats have nothing to say, because his competitors Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe are too strong, and the third defeat with Yasuo Fukuda can be said to be that the cooked duck flew away. After Shinzo Abe’s sudden resignation in September last year, various opinion polls showed that Aso had the highest voice as prime minister, and party member voted for Aso above Fukuda in the election for the president of the Liberal Democratic Party. However, due to the encirclement of Aso by various factions and the support of Fukuda, Aso was finally defeated. Until the fourth election for the president of the Liberal Democratic Party, people who opposed Aso were also active. It was only because there were too many candidates who confronted Aso, and none of them were popular, that the encirclement network was not formed and Aso won.

　　However, there are indeed many people in the Liberal Democratic Party who oppose Aso as president, which is directly related to his outspoken personality. Because of this long-standing reason, Aso has long been nicknamed "Big Mouth" and "Poisonous Tongue Home".

　　In May 2003, when Aso gave a speech at the University of Tokyo, he thought that when Japan occupied Korea, Koreans changed their names to Japan, "Chuang’s name was changed voluntarily by Koreans". In a speech in Nagoya in January 2006, Aso said that "it is best for the emperor to visit the Yasukuni Shrine". Two months later, when he spoke in the Senate, he called Taiwan, China a "country". In October, 2006, Nakagawa Shoichi, then president of the Political Bureau of the Liberal Democratic Party, was criticized for saying that nuclear weapons should be considered as an option, while Aso expressed his support for Nakagawa Shoichi, saying that "when neighboring countries have (nuclear weapons), it is necessary for (Japan) to hold various discussions as an idea". By February 2007, Aso claimed that "forced slavery by the Japanese army" and "there is no objective factual basis at all".

　　In addition to making frequent diplomatic gaffes, Aso often "slips of the tongue" on domestic issues in Japan. When he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1979, a reporter asked him if he could become the "future prime minister". Aso replied hotly that the premise was that "the old members must die". Later, Aso was often protested by people inside and outside the government because he said that giving women the right to participate in political power was the biggest failure and satirized Alzheimer’s disease. Although Aso has apologized for these gaffes many times, it seems that he can’t change his words because of his heart and personality.

　　Aso’s diplomatic arc

　　In terms of foreign policy, Aso advocates strengthening the Japan-US alliance. He believes that it is the wisdom that all children know to form an alliance with the strong when they can’t beat others. Because he has been a foreign minister for a long time, Aso has been to many countries, but his relationship with the current US President Bush is quite tacit. He highly praised Bush’s value diplomacy, and believed that it was easy to have good relations with countries sharing common values in freedom, democracy and legal system.

　　Aso himself also "developed" value diplomacy, which is the "arc of freedom and prosperity" he proposed. He believes that the East and the West were opposed during the Cold War, and the socialist countries adjacent to Japan were dangerous arcs. Now these countries are "democratic" and "free" and divorced from the Soviet Union. Japan should lean toward these countries in terms of government development assistance, help them prosper, and make the dangerous arc "the arc of freedom and prosperity", which means to contain China. At the same time, however, Aso believes that the rising China is not a threat from Japan, and the result of mutual competition between the two countries is to improve together and emphasize the common interests of the two countries.

　　When Aso was foreign minister, he didn’t visit the Yasukuni Shrine because of his sensitive identity. On this issue, his point of view is against the politicization of the Yasukuni Shrine, and he thinks that the sacrifice of Class-A war criminals in the Yasukuni Shrine is a manifestation of "politicization", so he opposes doing so. However, he also opposed the establishment of alternative facilities for the Yasukuni Shrine, because the Yasukuni Shrine has the collective memory of the Japanese and is irreplaceable. Aso advocated that the Yasukuni Shrine should stay away from politics, let ancestors stay away from the noise, and let people pay homage quietly. The method is to make the Yasukuni Shrine a special legal person according to the principle of separation of church and state. These ideas are clearly written in his two books, Boundless Japan and Arc of Freedom and Prosperity. (He Degong)

Editor: Xun Zhiguo