Noda Yoshihiko

Noda Yoshihiko (born May 20, 1957, Funabashi, Chiba prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese politician and bureaucrat who served as prime minister of Japan (2011–12).

The son of a paratrooper with the Self-Defense Force (the Japanese military), Noda grew up in modest means in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo. He graduated in 1980 from the School of Political Science and Economics of Waseda University in Tokyo and then attended the Matsushita School (now Matsushita Institute) of Government and Management in Chigasaki, Kanagawa prefecture, graduating in 1985. Those institutions long have been known for grooming many of Japan’s top leaders, and it was unusual for someone like Noda, who was not from the political elite, to attend both.

Noda was first elected to public office in 1987 as a member of the Chiba prefectural assembly, where he served for six years. In 1992 he joined the Japan New Party (which had been established that year by Hosokawa Morihiro), and the following year he won election to the House of Representatives (lower chamber) of the Diet (national parliament) from a district in Chiba prefecture. He lost his seat in 1996, but in 2000—now as a member of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)—he regained it, and he retained it in subsequent elections. For the next several years he served in relatively important but low-profile positions in the legislature and in the DPJ, including heading up the party’s public relations efforts.

In 2009, when the DPJ’s Hatoyama Yukio was named prime minister, Noda became senior vice finance minister. In January 2010 Kan Naoto was named finance minister, and, when Kan replaced Hatoyama as prime minister in June 2010, Noda succeeded Kan as finance minister. Following Kan’s resignation from office and the party leadership on August 26, 2011—in part because of a poor DPJ showing in upper-house elections in July—Noda was elected party president on August 29 and then was confirmed by the Diet as prime minister on August 30. He faced the daunting tasks of working with a divided legislature, in which the opposition Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) and its allies could block legislation in the upper chamber; attempting to reconcile DPJ factions in the lower house—notably that of Ozawa Ichirō—that had become estranged over opposition to Kan’s leadership; and reviving a long-moribund economy, especially in light of overseeing the ongoing massive recovery of the country from the highly destructive March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northern Honshu and the subsequent major nuclear accident in Fukushima prefecture caused by the tsunami.

Noda made passage of an increase in the national consumption (sales) tax the cornerstone of his legislative agenda for 2012. The rate would rise from the existing 5 percent to 10 percent by 2015, with the new revenue raised earmarked to help reduce the national debt and offset rising social welfare expenses. By championing that legislation, Noda lost any chance of reconciliation with Ozawa, who was strongly opposed to the tax increase. After the tax bill passed the House of Representatives in late June 2012, Ozawa resigned from the DPJ and shortly thereafter formed a new political party with four dozen members of his faction. Nonetheless, the bill passed the House of Councillors (upper chamber) in August.

Noda was easily elected to another term as DPJ president in September, but he faced growing public discontent for the tax legislation, his decision to restart nuclear power plants shut down in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, and his willingness to consider negotiating a trans-Pacific trade pact. He thus was confronted with increasing pressure from the LDP opposition to dissolve the lower house and call elections. Noda took those actions in mid-November, and in voting held on December 16 the DPJ took a major drubbing, dropping to just 57 seats in the chamber. Noda immediately announced his resignation as party leader. He formally resigned as prime minister on December 26 and was succeeded in office by former prime minister Abe Shinzo of the LDP.