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  Party Establishment Declaration

  Manifesto

 
Profile of Yasuo Tanaka

  A lecture on FCCJ by Yasuo Tanaka July 10th, 2007



 

Party Establishment Declaration


A fear of failure will not give birth to new ideas.
Confined by old concepts, we cannot build a new Japan.
We will do what others cannot, earnestly and unceasingly.
Our motto is “A Japan We Can Trust”.


Dreams are found in overturning the conventional.
A Japan for all of us is on the move!
Towards a Japan we can trust.

Team Nippon

Party Establishment Declaration
August 22, 2005




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Profile of Yasuo Tanaka

Yasuo Tanaka


Captain of New Party Nippon ,
Member the House of Councillors,
Former Nagano Governor , Novelist


Yasuo Tanaka was born in Tokyo on April 12, 1956. He and his family began living in Nagano prefecture in 1963 when his father began teaching at Shinshu University. He spent his childhood days in Ueda city and Matsumoto city in the prefecture from the 2nd grade till high school graduation.

Tanaka received the Bungei Award in 1980 when he was a law student at Hitotsubashi University with his maiden novel, ‘Nantonaku, Crystal (Feeling Crystal).’ The story, featuring young people living in a post-war economic prosperity, sold over a million copies. It received rave reviews from many literary critics including Jun Eto and Hiroshi Noma who is also a novelist.

He wrote ‘Brilliant na Gogo,’ (Brilliant Afternoon) featuring a fashion model who put all her energy and spirit in ‘flashy moments’ on a catwalk. In ‘On Happiness,’ he wrote about a checkered relationship between two girls seeking true happiness in life. He also wrote many short stories including ‘Mukashi-mitai (Just like Yesterday), ‘Thirsty,’ and ‘H.’ All these stories feature young people, so-called ‘children of a consumption age’ living in an age of material prosperity, each struggling to find his or her true-self, identity.

In the area of sociology, Tanaka began a serial called ‘Faddish Modernology’ in weekly Asahi Journal in 1985, ‘Kami-naki kuni no Gulliver (Gulliver on a godless land) in weekly Shukan Spa!. He currently writes ‘Tokyo Peroguri Diary,’ and ‘Kikkai Nippon , (Bizarre Japan) in evening newspaper Nikkan Gendai.


When the great Hanshin Earthquake hit in 1995 and 4 days after the disaster, Tanaka rushed to help quake victims at shelters and tent villages, riding on a 50 cc motorbike. He continued his volunteer activities for 6 months, helping people living in temporary housing. He wrote about his activities and thoughts on ‘engagement’ in a book called ‘a Kobe Earthquake Journal.’

In October, 2000, Tanaka became Nagano Governor. He declared ‘No-more-dam’ in February, 2001 and a departure from the conventional press club system in May the same year. Both touched off a major controversy but that signaled the beginning of his challenge against the back-scratching nature of an insular country of Japan.


In July, 2002, the Nagano assembly led overwhelmingly by Dam construction proponents passed a no-confidence motion against Tanaka. He chose to lose his job and announced the holding of a gubernatorial election on August 15th, which is the anniversary of the end of world war two. Tanaka won the election overwhelmingly.

As details are in the New Japan Declaration, Nagano, under his leadership, became the only prefecture to reduce its outstanding debts for 6 consecutive years by a total of 92.3 billion yen and achieved primary surpluses for 7 straight years. Tanaka implemented an open and transparent competitive tendering system in various fields. The unprecedented move pushed down the average successful bidding rate of over 97 percent to about 75 percent.

Nagano was the first nationwide to introduce elementary school classes limited to 30 students and carried out reforms in welfare, education, health care and the environment. Declaration of the Karuizawa Method for Condominiums to preserve the scenery of summer resort Karuizawa presented a guideline for similar efforts by other autonomies.

Tanaka set up an investigative committee to unravel irregularities in the bidding process for the Nagano winter Olympics. Books, the former governor and his close aide claimed to have burned, were discovered. The committee also uncovered the fact that a bank president had issued an audit oversight.
report dismissing any evidence of irregularities in the bidding financial report which in fact produced a colossal expenditures unaccounted for.


In August, 2005, Tanaka established New Party Nippon with a message of ‘changing Japan from regional communities,’ In a general election in September the same year, the party fielded candidates in 5 out of 11 blocks under the proportional representation system and garnered 1 point 64 million votes (That’s about 2 point 4 percent of the total votes cast.) (If converted to 11 blocks, the votes level those garnered by the Social Democratic Party.)

In August, 2006, Tanaka sought gubernatorial reelection for the 3rd time, but lost it by a narrow margin, although he garnered 530 thousand votes, which was about 48 percent of the valid ballots.

Tanaka is running in the upcoming 21st upper house election, along with Yoshifu Arita, an anti-AUM journalist, who has also contributed a lot in solving the North Korean abduction issue.


Main books
‘Nantonaku, Crystal (Feeling Crystal).’
‘a Kobe Earthquake Journal.’
‘Nippon − Minia Japonia’
‘Nagano Revolution 638 days’
‘Tokyo Peroguri Diary,’
‘Anti-Bid-Rigging Governor Yasuo Tanaka’


Tanaka has given speeches 4 times in the past at FCCJ, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, in June, 1981, May, 2001, August, 2002 and in August, 2005.

Declarations in English
http://yassy.system-a.org/hisyo/governor/declaration.htm


Speeches in English at FCCJ as Nagano Governor
May 21st, 2001:
http://yassy.system-a.org/hisyo/speech/ms010521e.htm


August 12th, 2002
http://yassy.system-a.org/hisyo/speech/ms020812e.htm




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