Obituaries

Former Tokyo Gov. Ishihara dies at 89

Reuters file photo
Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara waves to voters during his stumping tour for Tokyo gubernatorial election in Tokyo April 7, 2007.

Jiji Press

18:34 JST, February 1, 2022

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has died, it was learned Tuesday. He was 89.

Ishihara, a native of the city of Kobe and a graduate of Hitotsubashi University, was also known as a novelist and served as a member of the Diet.

He won the prestigious Akutagawa novel award for “Taiyo no Kisetsu” (Season of the Sun) in 1956 while he was a student of the Faculty of Law at the university. Later, he became known as a conservative critic.

Ishihara was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in 2015.

His eldest son, Nobuteru, is former secretary general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. His second son, Yoshizumi, is a famous television personality and his third son, Hirotaka, is an LDP lawmaker of the House of Representatives. Ishihara’s late younger brother, Yujiro, was a movie star and singer.