Junichiro Koizumi

Biography

Junichiro Koizumi is a Japanese politician who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, one of the longest and most popular tenures in postwar Japan. The son and grandson of politicians from Yokosuka, he studied economics at Keio University and then at University College London before returning on his father's death in 1969.

He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1972 for the Liberal Democratic Party. He served as minister of health and welfare twice and as minister of posts and telecommunications, and became known as an advocate of privatising Japan Post, whose savings system he saw as a source of waste.

Koizumi won the LDP presidency in April 2001 against the party's established factions, carried by strong support from rank-and-file members. In office he pressed for structural reform, visited the Yasukuni Shrine each year to Chinese and Korean protest, and made two visits to North Korea that led to the return of some abducted Japanese citizens. When the upper house blocked postal privatisation in 2005 he called a snap election, purged rebels from the party and won a large majority. He stepped down in 2006 and retired from parliament in 2009.