Junichiro Koizumi

Junichiro Koizumi
小泉 純一郎
Official portrait, 2001
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 26 April 2001 – 26 September 2006
Monarch	Akihito
Preceded by	Yoshirō Mori
Succeeded by	Shinzo Abe
President of the Liberal Democratic Party
In office 20 April 2001 – 20 September 2006
Preceded by	Yoshirō Mori
Succeeded by	Shinzo Abe
Minister of Health and Welfare
In office 7 November 1996 – 29 July 1998
Prime Minister	Ryutaro Hashimoto
Preceded by	Naoto Kan
Succeeded by	Sohei Miyashita
In office 27 December 1988 – 10 August 1989
Prime Minister	Noboru Takeshita Sōsuke Uno
Preceded by	Takao Fujimoto
Succeeded by	Saburo Toida
Minister of Post and Telecommunications
In office 12 December 1992 – 20 July 1993
Prime Minister	Kiichi Miyazawa
Preceded by	Hideo Watanabe
Succeeded by	Kiichi Miyazawa
Member of the House of Representatives from Kanagawa
In office 10 December 1972 – 20 October 1996
Preceded by	Seiichi Tagawa
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Constituency	2th district (Multi-member)
In office 20 October 1996 – 21 July 2009
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Shinjirō Koizumi
Constituency	11th district
Personal details
Born	(1942-01-08) 8 January 1942 (age 82) Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic
Spouse	Kayoko Miyamoto ​ ​ (m. 1978; div. 1982)​
Children	Kōtarō Koizumi Shinjirō Koizumi Yoshinaga Miyamoto
Alma mater	Keio University (BEc) University College London

Junichiro Koizumi (/kɔɪˈzuːmi/;^[1][2][3] 小泉 純一郎, Koizumi Jun'ichirō [ko.iꜜzɯmi (d)ʑɯɰ̃.iꜜtɕiɾoː]; born 8 January 1942) is a Japanese retired politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is the sixth-longest serving Prime Minister in Japanese history.^[4]

Widely seen as a maverick leader of the LDP upon his election to the position in 2001, he became known as a neoliberal economic reformer, focusing on reducing Japan's government debt and the privatisation of its postal service. In the 2005 election, Koizumi led the LDP to win one of the largest parliamentary majorities in modern Japanese history. Koizumi also attracted international attention through his deployment of the Japan Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, and through his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that fueled diplomatic tensions with neighbouring China and South Korea. Koizumi resigned as prime minister in 2006.

Although Koizumi maintained a low profile for several years after he left office, he returned to national attention in 2013 as an advocate for abandoning nuclear power in Japan, in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, which contrasted with the pro-nuclear views espoused by the LDP governments both during and after Koizumi's term in office.^[5]