Saturday, June 11 1921: Masatoshi Kusunoki, a later member of the House of Councilors, was born.

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, June 11 Masatoshi Kusunoki, a later member of the House of Councilors, was born in Tokyo Prefecture. He graduated from the Philosophy Department, Faculty of Law and Letters, Nihon University early, and served in the Navy during World War II. After being demobilized, he worked for the Ministry of Education’s General Affairs Division, but when the Federation of New Religions Organizations in Japan (FNROJ) was formed in 1951 (Showa 26), he resigned from the Ministry of Education and took part in its establishment. Kusunoki later became executive director of FNROJ. In 1965 (Showa 40), he ran as a member recommended by the FNROJ in the national constituency of the Liberal Democratic Party’s authorized House of Councilors election, was elected, and served 3 terms as a member.

He is known as a hawkish member of the LDP, and in 1973 (Showa 48) he visited Taiwan with Kazuo TAMAKI and Masayuki FUJIO after the breaking of diplomatic relations. In the same year, he also took part in the launch of the Liberal Democratic Party’s hawkish policy group, called Aoirankai. Shintaro Ishihara was the secretary general, Ichiro Nakagawa, Michio Watanabe was the representative caretaker, and Koichi Hamada was the secretary general. In November of the same year, he was appointed as Vice-Minister for International Trade and Industry in the second Tanaka Kakuei reshuffle, but he was defeated in the 13 Upper House election in 1983 and 58 retired. 2007 (Heisei 19) died at the age of 86.

There was a news video of the election campaign of the Upper House election in 1971 (Showa 46) on Youtube, and Masatoshi Kusunoki was also reflected there. It is called “Cry and laugh of talent candidate” by Chunichi News. It will be an election where Danshi Tatekawa, a Rakugo story teller, and Shinpei Nosue, a broadcast writer, were elected. I will put a link, so please take a look if you like.