Ex-Japan Foreign Min. Takeaki Matsumoto Dies at 67

Tokyo, July 30 (Jiji Press)–Former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, at a Tokyo hospital Monday, his office said Thursday. He was 67. Matsumoto, who was a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, retired from politics without running in the House of Representatives election in February this year due to his deteriorating health. He served nine terms as a lawmaker of the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament. His great-great-grandfather was Hirobumi Ito, the country’s first prime minister. A native of Tokyo, Matsumoto served as a secretary to his father, Juro Matsumoto, who was director-general of the Defense Agency, now the Defense Ministry, after working at Industrial Bank of Japan, a predecessor of Mizuho Bank, one of Japan’s three megabanks. The younger Matsumoto clinched a Lower House seat for the first time in the 2000 election, in which he ran for a constituency in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, from the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan. He later served as the party’s policy chief and the head of the Lower House steering committee. Matsumoto became foreign minister in 2011 under the cabinet of then Prime Minister Naoto Kan, replacing Seiji Maehara, who resigned from the post for receiving political donations from a foreign resident in Japan in violation of the political funds control law. Matsumoto left the DPJ in 2015, opposing its cooperation with the Japanese Communist Party, and joined the LDP in 2017. He became internal affairs and communications minister in November 2022 and again in December 2023, under the administration of then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]