The Honorable Kono Taro on “Global Expectations and Japan’s Response” on May 30
Kono Taro, one of the most outspoken Japanese lawmakers, will speak on how Japan should participate in a world where many old assumptions no longer prevail
Please join the Harvard Club of Japan as we welcome the Honorable Taro Kono of the House of Representatives. Mr. Kono will talk about his main policy focus on a market-oriented economy as well as Japan’s role in a changing world order.
He strongly supports the Trans Pacific Partnership as he believes that the Japanese economy should be open and more deregulated. He advocates for a smaller role of the national government in economic activity. He thinks the cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy lies in the alliance with the United States that is based on fairness and mutual understandings.
Until the Parliament was dissolved in August 2009, Mr. Kono was the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of the Representatives. He also served in Prime Minister Koizumi's final government as Senior Vice Minister of Justice from November 2005 to September 2006. In 2002 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Public Management. Responsibilities included pushing administrative reforms, handling local government matters, and promoting e-government.
As the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Kono conducted research into a secret accord with the US government on the introduction of US nuclear weapons into Japan, demanding that the Japanese government officially acknowledge the existence of the Accord.
Mr. Kono believes that Japan should amend the Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution so that Japan can better support defense partners such as the United States and other allies. In 2008 he publically supported the replacement of the retiring USS Kitty Hawk, an American conventional aircraft carrier, with an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but he strongly opposed the dispatch of the Self Defense Forces to Iraq.
On North Korea’s nuclear development, he co-sponsored and enacted the 2004 Economic Sanction Amendment to the Foreign Exchange Law and the Port Close Law to ban North Korean ships from entering Japanese ports, as a way to pressure the North to stop its nuclear ambition.
He is a strong opponent to the building of new nuclear power plants in Japan. He has voiced strong concerns over the Japanese government's nuclear policy since 1997. He is especially critical of its pursuit of the so-called 'closed' nuclear fuel cycle whereby plutonium is extracted from spent fuel by re-processing within Japan.
On social issues, Mr. Kono is making efforts to update the Japanese legal system to fit the fast-moving global economy. He introduced the new labeling rules on genetically modified organisms. He sponsored the Consumer Protection Law of 2004, a new version of the 1968 law, in response to the age of liberalized economy and faster communication, and enacted the anti-skimming law of 2005.
He is also involved in environmental protection and has supported regulatory processes such as the Kyoto Protocol that targeted reduction of greenhouse gases. He also enacted the Anti-Chlorofluorocarbons Law of 2001 that obligates consumers and makers to collect and treat trash that produces chlorofluorocarbon.
He also worked hard for revising the Organ Transplant Law of 2009, which enables a donor to put family members and relatives on his or her primary recipient’s list when he/she is still healthy or conscious. He himself donated part of his liver to his ailing father, Kono Yohei, former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, in a liver transplant operation in April 2002. Yohei Kono later became the longest serving Speaker of the House of Representatives.
BIOGRAPHY
Mr. Kono was born in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, January 10, 1963. He graduated from Georgetown University with the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. He attended the Central School of Planning and Statistics (SGPiS) in Warsaw, Poland in 1984.
He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1996 at the age of 33. Before becoming a politician he served under US Democratic Congressman Richard Shelby of Alabama, now GOP Senior Senator of Alabama, for two years in Washington. He joined Fuji Xerox in 1986 and moved to Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific in Singapore in 1991. He had served as Managing Director in Nippon Tanshi, a supplier of electric components for Toyota, GM, Matsushita, etc. from 1993 to 1996.
Aside from being a politician, Mr. Kono is an ardent supporter for the Shonan Bellmare, a Professional Football Club in Japan. He is also Chairman of the Japan Race Horse Association, a non-profit organization which organizes Japan's largest thoroughbred yearling sales.
Learn more about the speaker at http://www.taro.org/ (Japanese) and http://www.konotaro.org/ (English).
DATE: May 30 (Thursday)
TIME: 19:00pm to 21:00pm (Doors open at 18:30pm)
PLACE: NHK Seizanso, Aoyama
http://www2.nhk-g.co.jp/kenshu/seizansou_map.htm
ADMISSION: 8,000 yen per person (Cash bar available)
REGISTRATION: Please register online by MAY 27.
For inquries and cancellations, please contact veritas@fa.catv-yokohama.ne.jp