Former Japanese Defense Chief Norota dies

May 25, 2019

Tokyo--Hosei Norota, a former House of Representatives member who held such posts as agriculture minister and Defense Agency director-general, died of bladder cancer in a Tokyo hospital Thursday. He was 89. Norota was elected to parliament for the first time in 1977 as a House of Councillors member of the Liberal Democratic Party for a seat in his home prefecture of Akita, northeastern Japan. He later switched to the Lower House, serving eight consecutive terms. As director-general of the then Defense Agency under the government of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, Norota contributed to the enactment of legislation related to the guidelines for Japan-U.S. defense cooperation in 1999, including the law on Japan's logistics support to U.S. forces in emergencies in the vicinity of Japan. Also in 1999, he ordered the Self-Defense Forces to take necessary maritime actions when unidentified boats presumed to be from North Korea entered Japanese waters, the first such order since the SDF's establishment in 1954. In July 2005, Norota voted against a bill to privatize Japan's postal services in a revolt against then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a Lower House plenary session. He was unable to run as an LDP candidate in an ensuing Lower House election, due to the revolt, but returned to parliament as independent. After his ousting from the party, he continued to serve in the Lower House as an independent. He retired from politics in 2009.