Ryokichi Minobe

He graduated from the law faculty of Tokyo Imperial University in 1927 and lectured in the agriculture faculty from 1929 to 1932.

In 1935, he took a faculty position at Hosei University.

In 1945, Minobe became an editorial writer for the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.

He was chosen to head the Cabinet Statistics Office in 1946.

Ryokichi Minobe (美濃部 亮吉) was a Japanese economist, educator, and socialist politician who served as Governor of Tokyo from 1967 to 1979.

Minobe was born in Tokyo's Hongō Ward.

His father, Tatsukichi Minobe, was a noted constitutional scholar, while his mother Tamiko was the eldest daughter of mathematician, educator, and politician Dairoku Kikuchi.

He was the great-great-grandson of Edo Period samurai Mitsukuri Genpo.

In 1967, Minobe ran as the Communist and Socialist candidate for Governor of Tokyo.

He defeated his two rivals, Rikkyo University president Masatoshi Matsushita (nominee of the LDP and DSP) and Shibusawa Shipping head Ken'ichi Abe (nominee of Komeito).

Among his many policy achievements, he is best known for:

In 1971, Minobe won re-election, defeating LDP candidate Akira Hatano.

He was re-elected for a third term in 1975, with the backing of the Socialists, Communists, and Komeito.

Minobe refused to run for a fourth term in 1979.

He ran for the House of Councillors in 1980 and won a seat.

He remained a member of the Diet until his death in 1984.

(His defeated rival, LDP candidate Shintarō Ishihara, later served as a cabinet minister and eventually won the Tokyo governorship in the 1999 election.)

Many of Minobe's policies toward Chongryon, the Zainichi Korean group affiliated with North Korea were later undone by Ishihara in the aftermath of the revelation of North Korean abductions of Japanese.