Takeo Miki

File:Miki-takeo-seika.JPG

Takeo Miki was born on 17 March 1907, in Gosho, Tokushima Prefecture (present-day Awa, Tokushima), the only child of farmer-merchant Hisayoshi Miki and his wife Takano. Aside from farming, his father traded fertilizers, sake, rice and general goods, though he was not a wealthy farmer (gōnō) or from a family of pedigree (kyūke). Hisayoshi was born in Kakihara, near Gosho, to farmer Rokusaburō Ino'o, and after briefly working in Osaka, he returned and began working for the Shibata family, the largest landowner in Gosho. He met Takano Miki, the daughter of farmer Tokitarō Miki, when the two were working for the Shibata family. Hisayoshi took Takano's surname after marriage, and the newlywed were given a house by the Shibata family.{{Cite book |last1=Konishi |first1=Tokuō |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/758439654 |title=Miki Takeo kenkyū |last2=小西德應 |date=2011 |publisher=Nihon Keizai Hyōronsha |others=Meiji Daigaku. Meiji Daigakushi Shiryō Sentā., 明治大学. 明治大学史資料センター. |isbn=978-4-8188-2178-1 |pages=98, 99, 369 |oclc=758439654}}

When Miki was born, Hisayoshi was 33 and Takano was 38 years old, and Miki was raised with much love as he was the only child. His mother was particularly careful about his healthcare.

While enrolled at Meiji University's Faculty of Law, Miki was able to spend four years from 1932 to 1936 traveling around the United States, where he saw firsthand both Anglo-American liberal society as well as that society's aversion towards totalitarian states such as Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Soviet Union. He attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and was later awarded an honorary doctorate in law from the institution in 1966.[http://www.janm.org/collections/item/96.267.908/ Japanese Minister of International Trade and Industry, Takeo Miki's visit to Los Angeles, California, 29–30 September 1966 and 1 and 3 October 1966], Japanese American National Museum, Accessed 10 February 2009.

File:Miki-takeo-1937.jpg

During 1937, Miki was elected to the Diet; he remained there for the rest of his life, winning re-election no fewer than 19 times over 51 years. In the 1942 general election he openly voiced opposition to the military government under Hideki Tojo and still managed to win a seat; his efforts at this time were assisted by Kan Abe, the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.{{cite news|title=Japanese prime minister's another DNA|url=http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2013102834278|access-date=15 January 2014|newspaper=Dong-A Ilbo|date=28 October 2013}}

In the earlier post-war period, Miki led the centrist National Cooperative Party in the 1947 and 1949 general elections, to limited success. In the early 1950s, Miki joined Ichirō Hatoyama's Democratic Party,{{Cite journal|last=Kohno|first=Masaru|date=1992|title=Rational Foundations for the Organization of the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2010543|journal=World Politics|volume=44|issue=3|pages=371|doi=10.2307/2010543|jstor=2010543|s2cid=154083014 |issn=0043-8871}} which was one of the two main conservative factions of the time and took a stance that was critical of Shigeru Yoshida and his Liberal Party. These two factions eventually merged in 1955 to form the modern-day Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which Miki joined as well.

File:Takeo Miki 01.jpg

As the head of an LDP faction, Miki held cabinet posts in the administrations of Ichirō Hatoyama, Nobusuke Kishi, Hayato Ikeda, and Eisaku Satō. However, he was especially critical of the Kishi administration, and was strongly opposed to Kishi's handling of the massive 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=89}} When Kishi railroaded the treaty through the Diet on May 19, 1960, Miki's faction absented itself from the vote in protest of Kishi's heavy-handed approach.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=89}} On May 28, Miki and fellow faction leader Kenzō Matsumura issued a public call for Kishi's resignation,{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=89}} and Kishi was ultimately forced to resign in July.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=34}} However, when Ichirō Kōno floated a plan later that summer to split up the LDP, Miki and Matsumura ultimately declined to support him.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=90}} As punishment for taking part in the anti-Kishi rebellion, Miki was initially excluded from the cabinet of Kishi's successor Hayato Ikeda. However by the following year, Ikeda had cemented his power enough to overcome the objections of the Kishi faction and bring Miki back into the cabinet as Head of the Science and Technology Agency.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=94}}

Although Ikeda was re-elected as party president in 1964, he retired soon afterwards due to illness. In the debate over who would succeed Ikeda as prime minister, Miki supported Kishi's brother Eisaku Satō while Matsumura supported Ichirō Kōno. This led to a falling out between Miki and his erstwhile ally Matsumura, and thereafter the two men went their separate ways. Miki's support for Satō also healed the rift that had been created when he had opposed Kishi during the Anpo crisis, and Miki was rewarded for his support with powerful posts in the Satō cabinet, first as Minister of International Trade and Industry (1965–66) and then as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1966–68).

As the foreign minister under Satō, Miki secretly met in 1967 with American ambassador to Japan U. Alexis Johnson to discuss "how to reconcile Japanese desire for reversion [of Okinawa] with [American] military requirements." This was part of a series of resolute attempts by several Japanese officials within the same time period aimed at convincing the United States to reconsider its continued hold on Okinawa, which the U.S. had formerly insisted should remain under American protection so long as there was any remaining instability in East Asia.{{Cite journal|last=Watts|first=Robert C.|date=2019|title=ORIGINS OF A "RAGGED EDGE": U.S. Ambiguity on the Senkakus' Sovereignty|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26654318|journal=Naval War College Review|volume=72|issue=3|pages=111|jstor=26654318|issn=0028-1484}} In matters of regional foreign policy, Miki was an early advocate of Asia-Pacific economic cooperation and, in 1968, he said that "'it would be an act of suicide on our part to create an exclusive and closed trading bloc in the Pacific area."{{Citation|last=Drysdale|first=Peter|title=OPEN REGIONALISM, APEC AND CHINAʹS INTERNATIONAL TRADE STRATEGIES|date=2012|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24hb57.8|work=APEC and liberalisation of the Chinese economy|pages=16|editor-last=Drysdale|editor-first=Peter|publisher=ANU Press|jstor=j.ctt24hb57.8|isbn=978-1-922144-56-0|access-date=13 September 2021|editor2-last=Yunling|editor2-first=Zhang|editor3-last=Song|editor3-first=Ligang}} Despite this, ASEAN would later decline to invite now-Prime Minister Miki to the organisation's very first summit at Bali in 1976, as economic perceptions towards Japan in the region were negative because of resentment towards both wartime abuse by Imperial Japan as well as Japan's current status as a powerful economic giant with a heavy trade surplus.{{Cite journal|last=Villacorta|first=Wilfrido V.|date=1994|title=Japan's Asian Identity: Concerns for ASEAN-Japan Relations|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25770521|journal=ASEAN Economic Bulletin|volume=11|issue=1|pages=82|jstor=25770521|issn=0217-4472}}

{{seealso|Miki Cabinet}}

Miki took over from Kakuei Tanaka as Prime Minister on 9 December 1974, following the latter's implication in the corruption concerning real-estate and construction companies. The attractiveness of Miki to the LDP bosses was chiefly due to his personal integrity, and his weak power base from his small faction. In fact, Miki had neither expected nor wanted to be prime minister at all, as was reflected when upon his election he murmured "a bolt from the blue".{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}

File:Photograph of President Gerald R. Ford Meeting with Prime Minister Takeo Miki of Japan in the Oval Office - NARA - 7839939.jpg Gerald Ford in the Oval Office, 1975]]

While Miki was at the funeral of ex-PM Eisaku Sato in 1975, he was assaulted by a right-wing extremist named Hiroyoshi Fudeyasu, the secretary-general of the Greater Japan Patriotic Party{{cite web|url=https://www.stripes.com/news/attack-on-miki-security-lapse-shock-citizens-1.20993|title=Attack on Miki, security lapse shock citizens|work=Stars and Stripes }} with foreign dignitaries nearby.https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/17/archives/japanese-premier-is-punched-by-a-rightist-at-sato-funeral.htmlM {{Dead link|date=February 2022}} This caused criticism of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police over not doing enough to ensure his safety.

In a 1976 Diet session, Miki reaffirmed a past order of Prime Minister Satō's cabinet dating back to 1967 in which the percent of the national GDP allocated towards defense spending was frozen so as to not exceed 1%.{{Cite journal|last=Samuels|first=Richard J.|date=2007|title="New Fighting Power!" Japan's Growing Maritime Capabilities and East Asian Security|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30130519|journal=International Security|volume=32|issue=3|pages=84–112|doi=10.1162/isec.2008.32.3.84|jstor=30130519|s2cid=57568630|issn=0162-2889}} This policy taboo was broken by future Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in the 1980s, but was revived in 1990 by another future Prime Minister, Toshiki Kaifu, who was a member of the faction that descended from Miki's faction.{{Cite journal|last=Calder|first=Kent E.|date=1991|title=Japan in 1990: Limits to Change|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645182|journal=Asian Survey|volume=31|issue=1|pages=35|doi=10.2307/2645182|jstor=2645182|issn=0004-4687}}{{Cite journal|last=Baerwald|first=Hans H.|date=1989|title=Japan's House of Councillors Election: A Mini-Revolution?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2644829|journal=Asian Survey|volume=29|issue=9|pages=840|doi=10.2307/2644829|jstor=2644829|issn=0004-4687}} This policy has again come under renewed attention within modern Japan in light of contemporary discussions about constitutional revision and, by extension, the possible expansion of Japan's defense capabilities. In any event, Miki also pushed the Diet to fully ratify the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,{{Cite journal|last=Tamamoto|first=Masaru|date=2009|title=The Emperor's New Clothes: Can Japan Live without the Bomb?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40468657|journal=World Policy Journal|volume=26|issue=3|pages=67|doi=10.1162/wopj.2009.26.3.63|jstor=40468657|issn=0740-2775}} and he also worked to further strengthen previous policies set in motion by Prime Minister Satō which virtually committed Japan to not engage in the export of arms to any country.{{Cite journal|last=Marukawa|first=Tomoo|date=2013|title=Japan's High-Technology Trade with China and Its Export Control|journal=Journal of East Asian Studies|volume=13|issue=3|pages=489|doi=10.1017/S1598240800008316|jstor=26335260|s2cid=155500236|issn=1598-2408|doi-access=free}}

After being elected, Miki attempted to reform the LDP, relentlessly investigating the Lockheed bribery scandals and refusing to halt the criminal prosecutions being made against his predecessor.{{Cite journal|last=Izumikawa|first=Yasuhiro|date=2010|title=Explaining Japanese Antimilitarism: Normative and Realist Constraints on Japan's Security Policy|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40981245|journal=International Security|volume=35|issue=2|pages=147|doi=10.1162/ISEC_a_00020|jstor=40981245|s2cid=57567503|issn=0162-2889}} Miki also pursued political finance reforms.{{Cite journal|last=Kato|first=Junko|date=1998|title=When the Party Breaks Up: Exit and Voice among Japanese Legislators|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2586308|journal=The American Political Science Review|volume=92|issue=4|pages=864|doi=10.2307/2586308|jstor=2586308|s2cid=147403394 |issn=0003-0554}} These activities made him a large number of enemies within the party, and a campaign literally called "Down with Miki" ("Miki oroshi") was started by influential faction leaders. Despite Miki's personal popularity with the public, the Lockheed scandal reflected poorly on the party, which lost its overall majority in the 1976 election to the Diet and had to make deals with minor parties to remain in power. As is customary for Japanese political officials following heavy party setbacks, Miki then resigned.{{cite news|title=Tanaka reshuffles Japanese cabinet|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19740717&id=74seAAAAIBAJ&sjid=g8wEAAAAIBAJ&pg=791,289067|access-date=6 January 2013|newspaper=Daytona Beach Morning|date=17 July 1974|agency=AP|location=Tokyo}} He was succeeded on 24 December 1976, by Takeo Fukuda.

In 1940, Miki married Mutsuko Mori, daughter of the prominent Japanese businessman and politician, Nobuteru Mori, who had founded Showa Denko, a major chemical engineering firm. His brother-in-law, Kiyoshi Mori, was the head of the now defunct Management and Coordination Agency, which would later become the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. His other brother-in-law, Yoshihide Mori, served as the chief of the Environment Agency, the forerunner of the present-day Ministry of the Environment.

In Mao Zedong's final days, he took a great interest in Miki's political condition, as Miki was suffering a coup d'état from amongst his own party. Mao had never shown any interest in Miki before, or even mentioned him.

NFL player Takeo Spikes was named after Miki.Michael Silver, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140314211047/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1024399/2/index.htm Face Lift], Sports Illustrated, 26 November 2001, Accessed 7 October 2011.

During his time in Seattle, Miki spent a period as a dishwasher at noted Japanese restaurant Maneki.{{citation |last=Broom |first=Jack |title=Japanese eatery will serve up a centennial party of its own | newspaper=The Seattle Times |date=20 September 2004 |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20040920&slug=sushi20}}

To commemorate the ties of Japan to America, and Seattle in particular, Miki gave 1,000 cherry trees to Seattle to commemorate the United States Bicentennial in 1976. This gift gave birth to the Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival, still running annually.{{citation |last=McKenzie |first=Madeline |title=Enjoy a celebration of Japanese culture and other spring events in Seattle and Bellevue | newspaper=The Seattle Times |date=24 April 2019 |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/events/enjoy-a-celebration-of-japanese-culture-and-other-spring-events-in-seattle-and-bellevue/}}

In Hong Kong, the name "Takeo Miki" (三木武夫) is sometimes used to describe actors or actresses with wooden or no emotional expressions during movies or TV dramas. Some{{Who|date=August 2020}} have said that the origin for the slang term stems from Miki's wooden expression during his appearance in news reports.

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (14 November 1988; posthumous)

• {{flagu|Mexico|1934}}: Sash of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (18 September 1967)

File:Ford, Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Miki - June 30, 1976(Gerald Ford Library)(1553489).pdf|Memorandum of Conversation, White House state dining room, June 30, 1976

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book|last=Kapur|first=Nick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Re5hDwAAQBAJ|title=Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2018|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0674984424}}

{{Commons category|Takeo Miki}}

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{{Prime Ministers of Japan}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Miki, Takeo}}

Category:1907 births

Category:1988 deaths

Category:20th-century prime ministers of Japan

Category:Meiji University alumni

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Category:Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians

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Category:Politicians from Tokushima Prefecture