Ex-Chief Cabinet Secretary Sengoku Dies at 72

October 17, 2018

Tokyo- Yoshito Sengoku, who served as chief cabinet secretary when the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan was in power, died of lung cancer at his Tokyo home Thursday. He was 72.

The former member of the House of Representatives, the Japan's lower parliamentary chamber, also worked in key positions such as policy chief of the DPJ, which governed the country between 2009 and 2012.

Sengoku, a lawyer-turned-politician, was elected to parliament for the first time in the 1990 Lower House poll. He was an candidate of the Japan Socialist Party, now called the Social Democratic Party.

After losing the Lower House seat, he moved to the DPJ. He was elected to parliament six times in total.

In the DPJ government, Sengoku played key roles such as ministers for government revitalization and national strategy.

Sengoku, known for his expertise in a wide range of fields including finance, medicine and consumer affairs, worked hard to train younger politicians, such as Yukio Edano and Seiji Maehara.

A straight talker, Sengoku often locked horns with his political enemies.

In particular, Sengoku consistently rejected former DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa's political style, supporting anti-Ozawa lawmakers within the party including Edano.

Sengoku, then chief cabinet secretary, took charge of government response to a September 2010 incident in which a Chinese fishing ship hit a Japan Coast Guard vessel near the Japanese-administrated Senkaku Islands, also claimed by China, in the East China Sea.

But the government's response, including the release of the Chinese captain, was criticized. The opposition-controlled House of Councillors, the upper chamber, adopted a censure motion against Sengoku.

He lost a seat in the 2012 Lower House election, when the DPJ was swept out of office. He retired from politics after announcing his decision not to run in the 2014 Lower House election.

Later, the DPJ merged with other parties and became the Democratic Party. Defectors from the DP created other parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People. Jiji Press