on September 27, 1993 In the
July 1993 general election, in a change very few had foreseen even a year earlier, the LDP lost its majority in the Diet for the first time in thirty-eight years, winning only 223 out of 511 seats in the
House of Representatives. The previous LDP government of
Kiichi Miyazawa was replaced by an eight-party
coalition government which promised a series of social, political, and economic reforms. Excluding the
JCP, the coalition was backed by all of the former opposition parties, which included the newly formed JNP, the
Japan Socialist Party, the
Japan Renewal Party (Shinseito),
Komeito, the
Democratic Socialist Party, the
Socialist Democratic Federation, the
RENGO and the
New Party Sakigake, who together controlled 243 seats in the House of Representatives. Hosokawa, one of the major voices in forming the coalition, was chosen as the new Prime Minister.
Walter Mondale, then the US ambassador to Japan, characterized Hosokawa as having a "Kennedy-esque" ability to focus on ideals; nonetheless, Hosokawa's coalition had no common ideas other than their opposition to the LDP, which undermined Hosokawa throughout his term as prime minister. He was also at odds with Japan's bureaucracy, which he sought to reform after decades of bureaucratic entrenchment under the LDP.
Foreign policy ,
Hirohisa Fujii and
Masayoshi Takemura in October 1993 at
APEC Summit in November 1993 Hosokawa made several unprecedented moves toward atonement with Japan's Asian neighbors during his term as prime minister. In his first news conference in office, he made an unprecedented statement acknowledging that Japan waged a war of aggression in
World War II. Hosokawa later said: "You can obviously define 'aggression' in any number of ways, depending on context. But if you have any common sense, you just cannot say in good conscience that Japan was not the aggressor when Japan did in fact cause tremendous anguish and loss of life in China, Korea and Southeast Asian nations in order to protect its own interests. I knew my opinion was going to invite heated controversy." On 6 November 1993, he visited
South Korea, where he had a summit with President
Kim Young-sam in
Gyeongju and again offered a clear apology to the Korean people for Japan's actions in the war, statements which were widely applauded in Korea. Hosokawa viewed the
Japanese annexation of Korea as wrong and rejected the right-wing view in Japan that it was with Korea's consent and was beneficial to Korea. Hosokawa's acts toward China and Korea inspired Russian president
Boris Yeltsin to apologize to Hosokawa for the Soviet detention of Japanese prisoners of war in Siberia. Hosokawa later speculated that if both men had remained in office longer
Russian-Japanese relations would have improved significantly. These compromises had a negative impact on the public approval of the Hosokawa coalition. A law of December 1993 amending the Basic Law on measures for physically and mentally disabled persons of 1970 aimed to promote the independence of disabled people and their participation in activities in any field such as culture, the economy, and community affairs. Amendments made to regulations under the Industrial Safety and Health Law of 1972 on 30 March 1994 included accidents involving the collapsing of cranes and breaking of wires that needed to be reported to the authorities. On 1 April 1994, a 40-hour workweek was introduced. Hosokawa also enacted cuts in income and resident taxes, intended to help Japan out of the recession that had followed the
Japanese asset price bubble of the late 1980s and early 1990s. After pressure from the finance ministry, the government compensated for these cuts by announcing an increase in the
consumption tax from 3% to 7%, effective from 1997. The move was controversial within the cabinet, as
Ichiro Ozawa favored a 10% rate while the
Japan Socialist Party would not agree to an increase. Hosokawa announced the increase but retracted the announcement the next day, leaving the tax at 3%. The government's response to the issue weakened its hold on power and was said to hasten its demise. The tax was eventually increased to 5% in 1997 by LDP Prime Minister
Ryutaro Hashimoto.
Resignation Hosokawa was forced to resign in April 1994 after it came to light that he had accepted a 100-million-yen loan from a trucking company previously accused of bribery and links to organized crime. Amid allegations of bribery, Hosokawa argued that the money was a loan and produced a receipt to show that he had paid it back; LDP members passed around a copy remarking that it looked like a fake. Although Hosokawa still had high public approval at the time, opinion was growing that he could not meet the expectations set at the start of his term. Hosokawa's resignation was abrupt and led to a number of frenzied meetings aimed at saving the coalition, which was torn between the rival camps of
Ichiro Ozawa and
Masayoshi Takemura. After his resignation, the coalition was taken over by the Shinseito president
Tsutomu Hata.
Cabinet The
Hosokawa Cabinet was a product of his multi-party coalition but was dominated by individuals viewed as conservatives. Its key ministers were members of the
Shinseito party led by
Ichiro Ozawa. Hosokawa's own
Japan New Party had no other representatives in the cabinet. on 9 August 1993) == Later political life ==