50 Facts About Junichiro Koizumi

Junichiro Koizumi is the sixth-longest serving Prime Minister in Japanese history.

Junichiro Koizumi attracted international attention through his deployment of the Japan Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, and through his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that fueled diplomatic tensions with neighbouring China and South Korea.

Junichiro Koizumi graduated with a Bachelor of Economics degree from Keio University.

Junichiro Koizumi attended University College London before returning to Japan in August 1969 upon the death of his father.

Junichiro Koizumi gained his first senior post in 1979 as Parliamentary Vice Minister of Finance, and his first ministerial post in 1988 as Minister of Health and Welfare under Prime Ministers Noboru Takeshita and Sosuke Uno.

In 1994, with the LDP in opposition, Junichiro Koizumi became part of a new LDP faction, Shinseiki, made up of younger and more motivated parliamentarians led by Taku Yamasaki, Koichi Kato and Junichiro Koizumi, a group popularly dubbed "YKK" after the zipper manufacturer YKK.

Junichiro Koizumi competed for the presidency of the LDP in September 1995 and July 1998, but he gained little support losing decisively to Ryutaro Hashimoto and then Keizo Obuchi, both of whom had broader bases of support within the party.

However, after Yamasaki and Kato were humiliated in a disastrous attempt to force a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in 2000, Junichiro Koizumi became the last remaining credible member of the YKK trio, which gave him leverage over the reform-minded wing of the party.

On 24 April 2001, Junichiro Koizumi was elected president of the LDP.

Junichiro Koizumi was initially considered an outside candidate against Hashimoto, who was running for his second term as Prime Minister.

However, in the first poll of prefectural party organizations, Junichiro Koizumi won 87 to 11 percent; in the second vote of Diet members, Junichiro Koizumi won 51 to 40 percent.

Junichiro Koizumi defeated Hashimoto by a final tally of 298 to 155 votes.

Junichiro Koizumi spoke of the need for a period of painful restructuring in order to improve the future.

Junichiro Koizumi moved the LDP away from its traditional rural agrarian base toward a more urban, neoliberal core, as Japan's population grew in major cities and declined in less populated areas, although under current purely geographical districting, rural votes in Japan are still many times more powerful than urban ones.

Junichiro Koizumi decided to deploy the Japan Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, which was the first military mission in active foreign war zones since the end of the World War II.

Junichiro Koizumi's government introduced a bill to upgrade the Defense Agency to ministry status; finally, the Defense Agency became the Japanese Ministry of Defense on 9 January 2007.

Junichiro Koizumi has often been noted for his controversial visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, starting on 13 August 2001.

Junichiro Koizumi visited the shrine six times as prime minister.

Junichiro Koizumi visited the shrine annually in fulfillment of a campaign pledge.

Junichiro Koizumi's last visit as prime minister was on 15 August 2006, fulfilling a campaign pledge to visit on the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.

Eleven months after his resignation as prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi revisited the shrine on 15 August 2007, to mark the 62nd anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.

Junichiro Koizumi's 2007 visit attracted less attention from the media than his prior visits while he was in office.

On 15 August 2005, the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II, Junichiro Koizumi publicly stated that "I would like to express keen remorse and heartfelt apologies" and vowed Japan would never again take "the path to war".

Junichiro Koizumi was at certain points in his tenure an extremely popular leader.

In January 2002, Junichiro Koizumi fired his popular Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, replacing her with Yoriko Kawaguchi.

Junichiro Koizumi was re-elected in 2003 and his popularity surged as the economy recovered.

Junichiro Koizumi previously made it clear that he would dissolve the lower house if the bill failed to pass.

On 8 August 2005, Junichiro Koizumi, as promised, dissolved the House of Representatives and called for snap elections.

Junichiro Koizumi expelled rebel LDP members for not supporting the bill.

Junichiro Koizumi's popularity rose almost twenty points after he dissolved the House and expelled rebel LDP members.

Junichiro Koizumi announced that he would step down from office in 2006, per LDP rules, and would not personally choose a successor as many LDP prime ministers have in the past.

Junichiro Koizumi remained in the Diet through the administrations of Abe and Yasuo Fukuda, but announced his retirement from politics on 25 September 2008, shortly following the election of Taro Aso as Prime Minister.

Junichiro Koizumi retained his Diet seat until the next general election, when his son Shinjiro was elected into the same seat representing the Kanagawa 11th district in 2009.

Junichiro Koizumi supported Yuriko Koike in the LDP leadership election held earlier in September 2008, but Koike placed a distant third.

Since leaving office as prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi has not granted a single request for an interview or television appearance, although he has given speeches and had private interactions with journalists.

Junichiro Koizumi had been a proponent of nuclear power throughout his term as prime minister, and was one of the first pro-nuclear politicians to change his stance on the issue in the wake of the Fukushima disaster of 2011.

Junichiro Koizumi reportedly approached Morihiro Hosokawa, who served as Prime Minister in an anti-LDP coalition cabinet in the 1990s, to run for Governor of Tokyo in the February 2014 gubernatorial election on the platform of opposing the Abe government's pro-nuclear policy.

Junichiro Koizumi traveled to the United States in 2016 in support of a lawsuit by Operation Tomodachi participants who claimed illness from radiation exposure caused by the Fukushima disaster.

Junichiro Koizumi was turned away from attending his paternal grandmother's funeral.

Junichiro Koizumi is known to have a cousin in Brazil, and was overwhelmed to the point of tears when he visited Brazil in 2004 and was met by a group of Japanese immigrants.

Junichiro Koizumi is a fan of German composer Richard Wagner and has released a CD of his favorite pieces by contemporary Italian composer Ennio Morricone.

Junichiro Koizumi is a fan of the heavy metal band X Japan, with the LDP having even used their song "Forever Love" in television commercials in 2001.

Junichiro Koizumi is a noted fan of Elvis Presley, with whom he shares a birthday.

Junichiro Koizumi's brother is Senior Advisor of the Tokyo Elvis Presley Fan Club.

On 30 June 2006, Koizumi visited Presley's estate, Graceland, accompanied by US President George W Bush, and First Lady Laura Bush.

On 8 September 2006, he and Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen visited the Sibelius' home, where Junichiro Koizumi showed respect to the late composer with a moment of silence.

Junichiro Koizumi owns reproductions of the manuscripts of all seven symphonies by Sibelius.

In 2009, Junichiro Koizumi made a voice acting appearance in an Ultra Series feature film, Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie, playing the voice of Ultraman King.

Junichiro Koizumi said he took on the role at the urging of his son Shinjiro.

Junichiro Koizumi has been compared many times to American actor Richard Gere, because of their similar hair style.