Taro Kono

Taro Kono (河野 太郎) is a Japanese politician serving as the Minister for Digital Transformation since August 2022.

Taro Kono was born on 10 January 1963, in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, the oldest of the three children of Yōhei Kōno, a former President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

He was born into a family of politicians: his father, his grandfather Ichirō Kōno, and his great-uncle Kenzō Kōno (Speaker of the House of Councillors between 1971 and 1977), were all active in Japanese politics.

Kono attended Hanamizu Elementary School, Keio Middle School, and then Keio Senior High School.

In 1981, he entered Keiō University to study economics but dropped out in order to study in the United States.

In 1982, he went to the United States, where he attended Suffield Academy and Georgetown University, and studied comparative politics.

In 1983, he worked for Senator Alan Cranston in his campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

He also worked for then Representative Richard Shelby of Alabama (at the time a Democrat) for two years.

He also spent time at the Warsaw School of Economics, Poland, during which he spent a night in prison after visiting the home of Solidarity leader, Lech Wałęsa.

Kono graduated from Georgetown University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service and the following year he joined Fuji Xerox.

He moved to Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific in Singapore in 1991.

In 1993, he joined Nippon Tanshi (日本端子), a supplier of electric components for Toyota, General Motors, Matsushita, and other companies.

He is also a member of the House of Representatives representing Kanagawa's 15th district since 1996.

Kono has developed a reputation as a political maverick, with a tendency to hold positions on issues contrary to his party.

He is also known for his large following on social media and his fluency in English, having attended college in the United States.

He also has been speculated as a potential future Prime Minister, running in the 2021 Liberal Democratic Party leadership election, but losing to Fumio Kishida in a second round run-off.

Kono was first elected to the House of Representatives of Japan as a Liberal Democratic member in the October 1996 general election, at age 33.

His winning majority increased from 13,297 in 1996 to 63,058 in 2000, 71,968 in 2003, and 103,280 in 2005.

He has since been re-elected six times in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2012 and 2014, respectively.

From January to October 2002, Kono was Parliamentary Secretary for Public Management, responsible for administrative reforms, local governments, and "e-government."

In October 2002, Kono was named Director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives.

He resigned from this position two months later in protest over the Iraq War, accusing Foreign Minister Kawaguchi of not adequately explaining the government's policy.

Kono was the Acting Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party Committee until November 2003 and was one of the few members of the LDP to oppose the dispatch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.

In 2004, Kono, then 41, was appointed Assistant Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party, and was also elected Prefectural Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party in Kanagawa Prefecture.

He was the youngest Prefectural Chairman in the LDP.

In 2004, Kono co-sponsored the Economic Sanction Amendment to the Foreign Exchange Law, which gives the government power to unilaterally declare economic sanctions on any state; and the Port Closure Bill, which allows the government to refuse the entry of foreign ships from Japanese ports.

His website states that "North Korea was the target."

He also sponsored a United Nations Reform Bill that would have required the government to reduce its voluntary contributions to the UN Systems by 10 percent each year until changes were made in the membership of the Security Council.

The total number of votes he received in 2005 was 186,770, the second largest number in Japan's electoral history (second only to then Prime Minister Koizumi's total in the same election).

Kono has been a member of five standing committees of the House of Representatives: Economy; Environment; Health, Labour, & Welfare; Trade & Industry; and Finance.

In addition, he has been a member of two special committees: Consumer Affairs, and Children & Youth Affairs.

From November 2005 to September 2006 he was Senior Vice Minister of Justice in Koizumi's government.

In 2005, he led the Party in Kanagawa in the general election.

Kono resigned as head of the Kanagawa LDP following the 2007 local elections, in which the LDP-supported candidate Tadashi Sugino lost to incumbent Shigefumi Matsuzawa.

He became head of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in September 2008.

He ran for President of the LDP in 2009, but was defeated by Sadakazu Tanigaki.

Kono replaced Hiroyuki Sonoda as Deputy Secretary-General of the LDP in April 2010, after Sonoda left the party to join the Sunrise Party of Japan.

A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he previously served as Minister for Administrative Reform and Regulatory Reform from 2015 to 2016 and from 2020 to 2021, and was the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

He won a closely contested election in the newly created Kanagawa 15th district covering the cities of Hiratsuka and Chigasaki, adjacent to his father's constituency in the Kanagawa 17th district (Odawara and Hadano).

In October 2015, Kono joined the Third Abe Cabinet as Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, Minister in charge of Administrative Reform, Minister in charge of Civil Service Reform, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety, Minister of State for Regulatory Reform and Minister of State for Disaster Management.