17 Facts About Kunio Hatoyama

Kunio Hatoyama was a Japanese politician who served as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications under Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda until 12 June 2009.

Kunio Hatoyama was a son of Yasuko Hatoyama and Iichiro Hatoyama, a bureaucrat who later became a third-generation politician, and grandson of Ichiro Hatoyama, who became the President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Prime Minister of Japan between 1954 and 1956.

Kunio Hatoyama wanted to get into politics right away and became an aide to Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

Kunio Hatoyama ran for the House of Representatives in 1976 as a member of the New Liberal Club and entered the LDP after winning.

Kunio Hatoyama was briefly Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata.

In 1994, he helped form the now-defunct New Frontier Party, which he left in 1996 to form the Democratic Party of Japan with his brother, Yukio Kunio Hatoyama, and became the Vice Leader of the opposition.

Kunio Hatoyama joined the Shinzo Abe cabinet as Justice Minister in August 2007, and maintained his post through the September inauguration of the cabinet of Yasuo Fukuda.

Subsequently, in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, appointed on 24 September 2008, Kunio Hatoyama was moved to the post of Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Kunio Hatoyama was married to Emily Hatoyama, the daughter of an Australian army sergeant, Jimmy Baird, and a Japanese woman.

Kunio Hatoyama died on 21 June 2016 in a hospital in Tokyo, at the age of 67.

Kunio Hatoyama was survived by his wife, three children and five grandchildren.

In September 2007, Kunio Hatoyama caused a controversy after making a remark during a press conference, where he suggested a system in which execution of death row inmates could take place without him having to sign the final execution order, as currently required by Japanese law.

Kunio Hatoyama came under criticism from opponents to capital punishment such as Amnesty International Japan for his attitude, which said that he was trying to avoid accountability as well as showing disregard for human rights.

In October 2007, during a news conference, Kunio Hatoyama attempted to justify plans to fingerprint and photograph all foreigners at immigration by claiming that an unidentified "friend of a friend", who is an Al-Qaeda terrorist involved in the 2002 Bali bombings, was able to sneak in and out of Japan repeatedly over the following years using different passports and wearing a fake moustache.

Kunio Hatoyama added that he had received prior warning to stay away from the centre of Bali because it would be bombed.

Kunio Hatoyama issued a statement denying any connections to members of Al-Qaeda, as well as apologising to Prime Minister Fukuda for the confusion he caused.

Kunio Hatoyama was affiliated to the openly revisionist organization Nippon Kaigi.