Tanzan Ishibashi

Tanzan Ishibashi (石橋 湛山, Ishibashi Tanzan, 25 September 1884 – 25 April 1973) was a Japanese journalist and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1956 to 1957. He was also Director General of the Japan Defense Agency in addition to being Prime Minister. During the same time he was the 2nd president of the Liberal Democratic Party, the majority party in the Diet. From 1952 to 1968 he was also the president of Rissho University. Being a member of Nichiren-shū, the name Tanzan is a religious name, as his profane name was Seizō (省三).

Tanzan Ishibashi
石橋 湛山
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 23 December 1956 – 31 January 1957
Monarch	Shōwa
Preceded by	Ichirō Hatoyama
Succeeded by	Nobusuke Kishi
Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency
In office 23 December 1956 – 31 January 1957
Monarch	Shōwa
Prime Minister	Tanzan Ishibashi
Preceded by	Funada Naka
Succeeded by	Nobusuke Kishi
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications
In office 23 December 1956 – 27 December 1956
Preceded by	Isamu Murakami
Succeeded by	Taro Hirai
Minister of International Trade and Industry
In office 10 December 1954 – 23 December 1956
Prime Minister	Ichirō Hatoyama
Preceded by	Kiichi Aichi
Succeeded by	Mikio Mizuta
Minister of Finance
In office 22 May 1946 – 24 May 1947
Prime Minister	Shigeru Yoshida
Preceded by	Keizo Shibusawa
Succeeded by	Tetsu Katayama (Acting)
Member of the House of Representatives for Shizuoka 2nd District
In office 1 October 1952 – 29 January 1967
In office 26 April 1947 – 17 May 1947
Personal details
Born	25 September 1884 Tokyo, Japan
Died	25 April 1973 (aged 88) Osaka, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic Party (1955–1973)
Other political affiliations	Socialist Party (1945–1955)
Alma mater	Waseda University
Signature

Life

Ishibashi was born in Tokyo as the son of Nippu Sugita (1856–1931)[1], a Nichiren Buddhist priest and the 81st head of Kuon-ji temple in Yamanashi prefecture. Ishibashi, who took on his mother's surname, would become a Nichiren priest himself.[2] He studied philosophy and graduated from Waseda University's faculty of literature department.[3]

He worked as a journalist at the Mainichi Shimbun for a while. After he finished military service, he joined "Tōyō Keizai Shimpo" (Eastern Economic Journal) and later he became its president in 1941. He wrote about Japanese financial policy, developing over time a new liberal perspective.[4]

Ishibashi had a liberal political view and was one of the most consistent proponents of individualism during the Taisho Democracy movement. In this regard, he also promoted a feminist perspective, advocating comprehensive "legal, political, educational, and economic" equality for women so that they could better thrive in the competitive modern society, in contrast to the stratified conditions of feudal life.[5] Ishibashi was also one of the rare personalities who opposed Japan's colonialism. Instead, he advocated a Small Japan policy; the core opinion of his Small Japan policy (小日本主義, shō-nihon shugi) was the abandonment of Manchuria and of the other countries which Japan had partly or wholly colonized, to refocus efforts on Japan's own economic and cultural development.[4][6] In addition, he allied himself with Tanaka Ōdō in arguing for free trade and international cooperation over militarism and colonialism.[5]

Ishibashi's cabinet (Ishibashi is in the centre, with Nobusuke Kishi to his left, as his Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Hayato Ikeda to his right as his Minister of Finance).

After World War II he received some political offers, including from the Japan Socialist Party, which offered to make him a candidate. Ishibashi became the minister of Finance under the first cabinet of Shigeru Yoshida from 1946 to 1947. In 1947 he was purged and forced to resign after openly opposing US General MacArthur's policies. After his purge was repealed in 1951, he allied with Ichirō Hatoyama and joined the movement against Yoshida's cabinet. In 1953 Ishibashi was appointed to minister of Industry by Hatoyama who became the prime minister. Around this time, Ishibashi was one of the supporters of Japanese rearmament.[7] In 1955, the Liberal Democratic Party was formed and Ishibashi joined it.

When Hatoyama decided to retire in 1956, the LDP held a vote for their new president. At first Nobusuke Kishi was considered the most likely candidate, but Ishibashi allied himself with another candidate (Kojiro Ishii) and won the election. Ishibashi was appointed as president of the LDP and became the prime minister of Japan. Ishibashi stated that the government should endeavor to set up diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and also took a cooperative approach towards different political perspectives at home, resulting in high public approval ratings[8]. Unfortunately he became sick and gave up his office only two months later.

After he resigned the post of prime minister and post of president of LDP, he visited China in 1963. He was known as a prominent figure among liberal politicians in the LDP. He opposed Kishi's politics on security, which seemed too militant to Ishibashi.

Tanzan Ishibashi died on April 24, 1973 [9]

Honours

From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (29 April 1964)
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers (25 April 1973; posthumous)

Sources

• Liberalism in Modern Japan: Ishibashi Tanzan and His Teachers, 1905-1960, by Sharon H. Nolte, Published by University of California Press, 1986
• Ishibashi Tanzan’s World Economic Theory - The War Resistance of an Economist in the 1930s, Princeton University (http://www.princeton.edu/~collcutt/doc/Keshi_English.pdf)

References

1. "Sugita Nippu". Wikidata.
2. Murphy, Trevor (2004). "The Leprosy Relief Work of Tsunawaki Ryūmyō". The Eastern Buddhist. 36: 8 – via JSTOR.
3. "Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures — Ishibashi Tanzan". National Diet Library. 2013.
4. Keshi, Jiang (c. 2006). "Ishibashi Tanzan's World Economic Theory: The War Resistance of an Economist in the 1930's" (PDF). Princeton University.
5. Nolte, Sharon Hamilton (Aug 1984). "Individualism in Taishō Japan". The Journal of Asian Studies. 43: 667–684 – via JSTOR.
6. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/10/20/commentary/japan-commentary/wisdom-tanzan-ishibashi/#.XD3mVPZFw5s
7. Hajimu, Masuda (Jul 2012). "Fear of World War III: Social Politics of Japan's Rearmament and Peace Movements, 1950—3". Journal of Contemporary History. 47: 558 – via JSTOR.
8. "Period of President Ishibashi's Leadership". Liberal Democratic Party.
9. https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/25/archives/tanzan-ishibashi-dies-at-88-was-former-premier-of-japan-philosopher.html