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}} is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from November 27, 1982 to November 6, 1987. A contemporary of Brian Mulroney, Ronald Reagan, Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand, Margaret Thatcher, Bettino Craxi and Mikhail Gorbachev, he is best known for pushing through the privatization of state-owned companies, and for helping to revitalize Japanese nationalism during and after his term as prime minister. At age 97, Nakasone is currently the oldest living former Japanese prime minister. ==Early life== Nakasone was born in Takasaki in Gunma, a poor mountainous prefecture in northern Japan.〔("Japan’s Elder Statesman Is Silent No Longer" ) by Martin Fackler, ''The New York Times'', January 29, 2010 (January 30, 2010, p. A11).〕 He is the second son of Nakasone Matsugoro II, a lumber dealer, and Nakamura Yuku. He had five other siblings: an elder brother (Kichitaro), an elder sister (Shoko), a younger brother (Ryosuke) and another younger brother and younger sister who both died in childhood. The Nakasone family had been of the ''samurai'' class during the Edo era, and claimed direct descent from the Minamoto clan through the famous Minamoto no Yoshimitsu and through his son Minamoto no Yoshikiyo (d. 1149). According to family records, Tsunayoshi (k. 1417), a vassal of the Takeda clan and a tenth-generation descendant of Yoshikiyo, took the name of Nakasone Juro and was killed at the Battle of Sagamigawa. In about 1590, the samurai Nakasone Souemon Mitsunaga settled in the town of Satomimura in Kozuke province. His descendants became silk merchants and pawnbrokers. Nakasone's father, originally born Nakasone Kanichi, settled in Takasaki in 1912 and established a timber business and lumberyard which had success as a result of the post-First World War building boom.〔 Nakasone describes his early childhood and youth as a happy one, and himself as a "quiet, easy-going child" nicknamed "Yat-chan". He attended a local primary school in Takasaki and was a poor student until the fourth grade, after which he excelled and was at the top of his class. He entered Shizuoka High School in 1935, where he excelled in history and literature and learned to speak fluent French. In the autumn of 1938, Nakasone entered Tokyo Imperial University. During World War II, he was a commissioned officer and paymaster in the Imperial Japanese Navy.〔 He later wrote of his return to Tokyo in August 1945 after Japan's surrender: "I stood vacantly amid the ruins of Tokyo, after discarding my officer's short sword and removing the epaulettes of my uniform. As I looked around me I swore to resurrect my homeland from the ashes of defeat".〔Robert Harvey, ''The Undefeated: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Greater Japan'' (London: Macmillan, 1994), p. 362.〕 Nakasone is the only postwar Prime Minister to have seen active service.〔Harvey, p. 362.〕 In 1947, he gave up a promising career in an elite government ministry to run for Parliament with the belief that in its postwar remorse, Japan was in danger of discarding its traditional values.〔 He campaigned on a nationalist platform, arguing for an enlarged Self-Defence Force, to amend Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution (which outlawed war as a means to settling international disputes), and to revive Japanese patriotism, especially in reverence for the Emperor.〔 He entered the Diet of Japan as a member of the House of Representatives for the Democratic Party.〔(The Senkyo, 23rd election of the House of Representatives, Gunma's 3rd district )〕 "As a freshman lawmaker in 1951, he delivered a 28-page letter to General MacArthur criticizing the occupation, a brazen move. The general angrily threw the letter in the wastebasket, Mr. Nakasone was later told. This stand established () credentials as a right-wing politician."〔 He gained brief notoriety in 1952 for blaming Emperor Hirohito for Japan's defeat in the war.〔Bix, H.P. ''Hirohito'', 2000. page 649.〕 In 1955, at Nakasone's urging, the government granted the equivalent of 14 million dollars to the Agency for Industrial Science and Technology to begin nuclear power research.〔Daniel P. Aldrich, (With a Mighty Hand ), ''New Republic''〕 Nakasone rose through the LDP's ranks, becoming Minister of Science in 1959 under the government of Nobusuke Kishi, then Minister of Transport in 1967, head of the Agency of Defense in 1970, Minister of International Trade and Industry in 1972 and Minister of Administration in 1981. As head of the Self-Defence Force, Nakasone argued for an increase in defence spending from the less than 1% GDP to 3% of GDP. He was also in favour of Japan having tactical nuclear weapons.〔Harvey, p. 363.〕 He was labelled "the weathervane" in 1972 because he switched his support from Takeo Fukuda to Kakuei Tanaka in the leadership election, ensuring Tanaka's victory. In turn, Tanaka would give his powerful support to Nakasone against Fukuda a decade later in the fight for the premiership.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yasuhiro Nakasone」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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