Nobuo Ishihara, a former deputy chief cabinet secretary who acquired the nickname “shadow prime minister” while serving a record seven prime ministers from 1987 to 1995, died on Wednesday, according to the government. He was 96. Ishihara, who rose through the ranks of the cabinet after serving as deputy minister of the now-defunct Home Affairs Ministry, worked for every Japanese prime minister from Noboru Takeshita to Tomiichi Murayama.
Reason For Nobuo Ishihara Death:
According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, he died on Sunday due to multiple organ failures. Ishihara was the third-longest serving deputy chief Cabinet secretary, serving during the 1993 coalition administration led by Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, which briefly disrupted the Liberal Democratic Party’s hold on power since 1955. During his tenure, he earned the moniker “shadow prime minister” for his enjoyment of having a prominent voice in administrative affairs during convulsion on the Japanese political scene.
The Career of Nobuo Ishihara:
He served in the Cabinet alongside other bureaucrats and elected politicians during several historical events in postwar Japan, including the 1989 funeral of Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, the country’s introduction of a consumption tax the same year, and the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. According to Japanese legislation, the cabinet has three deputy secretaries. One of the positions is usually filled by an elite bureaucrat, and the other by lawmakers. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, Ishihara, a native of Gunma Prefecture, joined a forerunner of the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1952. Following his departure from the government, Ishihara ran for governor of Tokyo in 1995, with the support of the LDP and other major parties, but lost to Yukio Aoshima.
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