Hirohide Ishida

Hirohide Ishida (石田 博英, Ishida Hirohide, 12 December 1914 – 14 October 1993) was a Japanese politician who served in the cabinets of multiple conservative administrations. In the 1980s, it was revealed that the KGB considered him to be an agent of the Soviet Union.

Hirohide Ishida
Minister of Labour
In office
14 December 1976 – 28 November 1977
Prime MinisterTakeo Fukuda
Preceded bySachio Urano
Succeeded byKatushi Fujii
Minister of Transport
In office
15 September 1976 – 14 December 1976
Prime MinisterTakeo Miki
Preceded byMutsuo Kimura
Succeeded byHajime Tamura
Minister of Labour
In office
9 November 1964 – 3 June 1965
Prime MinisterEisaku Satō
Preceded byHimself
Succeeded byHisao Kodaira
In office
18 July 1964 – 9 November 1964
Prime MinisterHayato Ikeda
Preceded byTakeo Ohashi
Succeeded byHimself
In office
19 July 1960 – 18 July 1961
Prime MinisterHayato Ikeda
Preceded byRaizo Matsuno
Succeeded byKenji Fukunaga
In office
10 July 1957 – 12 June 1958
Prime MinisterNobusuke Kishi
Preceded byShūtarō Matsuura
Succeeded byTadao Kuraishi
Chief Cabinet Secretary
In office
25 February 1957 – 10 July 1957
Prime MinisterNobusuke Kishi
Preceded byHimself
Succeeded byKiichi Aichi
In office
23 December 1956 – 25 February 1957
Prime MinisterTanzan Ishibashi
Preceded byRyūtaro Nemoto
Succeeded byHimself
Personal details
Born12 December 1914
Futatsui, Akita, Japan
Died14 October 1993(1993-10-14) (aged 78)
Political partyLiberal Democratic Party
Alma materWaseda University

Early life

Born in Noshiro, Akita, Ishida entered Waseda University, where he majored in political science and economics. After graduating in 1939, he joined Chugai Shōgyō Shimpo (later renamed Nihon Keizai Shimbun) and was appointed as its chief correspondent in Shanghai.

Political career

In 1947, Ishida was elected to the House of Representatives. He joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1955, serving as Chief Cabinet Secretary under two prime ministers, Tanzan Ishibashi and Nobusuke Kishi, from 23 December 1956 to 10 July 1957. Widely viewed as a friend and proponent of labor unions (an unusual stance in the pro-business LDP),[1] he was also appointed to five terms as minister of labor under four different prime ministers, in addition to one term as minister of transport. While minister of labor under Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda in 1960, Ishida successfully negotiated the end of the 1960 Miike Coal Mine Strike, which remains the largest labor-management dispute in Japanese history.[1]

In January 1963, Ishida published an article in Chūō Kōron predicting that the Liberal Democratic Party would lose power to the Japan Socialist Party by 1970 due to ongoing changes in Japanese society, including urbanization, increasing education, and the decreasing number of farmers, who were generally seen as fundamental supporters of the LDP.[1][2] Ishida's article shocked the LDP, but was hailed as perceptive, and stimulated the party to make a number of reforms, including to changing its policies to increase its appeal among urban workers.[1][2]

KGB agent

Ishida had formed and chaired the Japan-USSR Friendship Parliamentarians' Union in 1973, visiting Moscow in 1973, 1974 and 1977. In 1982 Stanislav Levchenko, a KGB Major who had defected to the United States in 1979, testified before the U.S. Congress that Ishida was an agent for the Soviet Union, codenamed "HOOVER".[3][4] This was later confirmed in the "Mitrokhin Documents" smuggled out of the Soviet Union by Vasily Mitrokhin, a former KGB employee who fled to England in 1992. In response to Levchenko's revelations, the CIA and the Japanese police launched an investigation, and Ishida abruptly left politics in November 1983. However, the investigation ultimately concluded that Ishida had not leaked any sensitive information.

Ishida Rose Garden
Roses in bloom at Ishida Rose Garden

An amateur rosarian, Ishida planted the yard of his house with various kind of roses. Two years after his death, his rose garden was donated to the City of Odate and named Ishida Rose Garden (石田ローズガーデン, Ishida Rōzu Gāden).[5] It is since opened to the public every June.[6]

Honours

References
  1. Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 108, 136. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  2. Kume, Ikuo (1998). Disparaged Success. Cornell University Press. pp. 114–115. ISBN 978-0-8014-8494-0.
  3. Godson, Roy (2000). Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards. Transaction Publishers. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-7658-0699-4.
  4. Nakanishi, Terumasa (April 2006). Ōshima, Shinzō (ed.). 中国の対日工作を予言していた米国「防諜官」の驚愕証言に学べ. Seiron (in Japanese). Fujisankei Communications Group.
  5. バラが見ごろ、大館市の石田ローズガーデン 貴重な種類も (in Japanese). Akita Sakigake Shimpo. 17 June 2009. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
  6. "地域からの便り". 東北農政局メ―ルマガジン (in Japanese). Sendai: Tohoku Regional Agricultural Administration Office. 8 May 2007. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
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