Yohei Kono

Yohei Kono was born on 15 January 1937 in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, a son of the politician Ichiro Kono and his wife Teruko. The family was steeped in politics. His grandfather Jihei Kono had been a politician, his father served as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Minister of Construction and Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and his uncle Kenzo Kono went on to be President of the House of Councillors from 1971 to 1977. His father also owned racehorses, an interest Yohei inherited as an adult.

Kono attended Waseda University Senior High School and in 1955 entered the economics department of Waseda University's School of Political Science and Economics. Future prime minister Yasuo Fukuda was a classmate, and Kono ran for the university's athletics (track) club. He graduated in 1959. He later studied at Stanford University in the United States, a stay cut short when his father summoned him home and introduced him to his future wife.

After university Kono joined the trading company Marubeni-Iida (renamed Marubeni in 1972), working in finance and food trading departments, and was involved in the early company that planned Fuji Speedway. He was more interested in business than politics, but after Ichiro Kono died in 1965 his father's supporters pressed him to succeed to the seat.

He won election to the House of Representatives in January 1967 at the top of the poll, representing Kanagawa constituencies continuously until 2009 and winning 14 consecutive elections. In 1972 he became Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education. Dubbed a "prince" of the LDP, he led a cross-factional study group of younger liberal members.

In 1976 he left the LDP with Seiichi Tagawa (his cousin), Takeo Nishioka and others to found the New Liberal Club, which campaigned against money politics and won 17 seats in that year's election. He stepped down as leader after a heavy defeat in 1979, returned as leader in 1984, and, after the party joined a coalition with the LDP under Yasuhiro Nakasone, became Director-General of the Science and Technology Agency and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in December 1985. The New Liberal Club dissolved after the 1986 double election and Kono returned to the LDP, joining Kiichi Miyazawa's faction.

Under Prime Minister Miyazawa he served as Chief Cabinet Secretary from December 1992 to August 1993, issuing the Kono Statement on comfort women on 4 August 1993. After the LDP lost its majority, he was elected LDP president on 9 August 1993 and led the party in opposition. In June 1994 he backed Socialist leader Tomiichi Murayama for prime minister, creating the LDP, Socialist and Sakigake coalition that returned the LDP to power, and served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. His presidency ended in October 1995 when Ryutaro Hashimoto took over, making Kono one of only two LDP presidents never to become prime minister.

In 1999 he founded his own group, the Taiyukai (Kono Group), with Taro Aso and others. He was Foreign Minister again from October 1999 to April 2001 under Keizo Obuchi and Yoshiro Mori and chaired the G8 foreign ministers' meeting associated with the July 2000 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit.

On 19 November 2003 he became Speaker of the House of Representatives, and was re-elected Speaker after the 2005 general election. As Speaker he backed the appointment of information scientist Makoto Nagao as Librarian of the National Diet Library in 2007 and, with House of Councillors President Satsuki Eda, brokered a compromise during the 2008 gasoline tax dispute. On 20 November 2008 he passed Ikuzo Ooka's record for the longest-serving speaker. He announced his retirement in September 2008 and left the Diet when the House was dissolved on 21 July 2009, after 2,029 days as Speaker.

He was also president of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations from 1999 to 2013, and in later life chaired the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade and the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders' Association.

While Kono was at Stanford, his father called him home and introduced him to Takeko Ito, daughter of the businessman Kyoichi Ito. They married and had three children: Taro Kono (born 1963), who became a member of the House of Representatives and held several cabinet posts; Jiro Kono, a company president who also runs the family's Nasuno farm; and a daughter, Haruko. Takeko died of cancer in July 1995 at the age of 53, and Kono later said he deeply regretted the hardship that life as a politician's wife had caused her.

Kono began to suffer unusual fatigue around 1976 and was later diagnosed with hepatitis C. By 2000 his liver disease had advanced to cirrhosis. On 16 to 17 April 2002 he received a living-donor liver transplant at Shinshu University Hospital, with Taro as the donor. Father and son wrote about the experience in the book Ketsudan (Decision), published by Asahi Shimbun in 2004.

As an owner-breeder he bred the classic winners Nasuno Kotobuki (Kikuka Sho, 1966), Nasuno Kaori (Oka Sho, 1971) and Nasuno Chigusa (Yushun Himba, 1973).

Kono was regarded as a leading dove within the LDP. He championed reconciliation and stable relations with China and South Korea, opposed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine, and in retirement repeatedly spoke out against revising Article 9 of the Constitution, describing the war-renouncing clause as an expression of Japan's resolve and ideals. He criticised money politics, which drove his 1976 break from the LDP,. On the Iraq War he voiced doubts but called the use of force an unavoidable decision.

The Kono Statement remains Kono's defining legacy. It became the basis of later government positions on the comfort women issue and of efforts to address the subject in school history education, and successive governments, including that of Shinzo Abe after a 2014 review, said they would not revise it. He also left a mark as a record-setting Speaker, as a key architect of the 1994 coalition that restored the LDP to power, and as the founder of the New Liberal Club, one of the first serious breakaways from the LDP. His death drew condolences from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the LDP, and China's Foreign Ministry, and his death was widely reported in South Korea and China, where his statement is remembered. His son Taro Kono continues the family's political line.

Kono received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers in the autumn 2011 honours. He was recognised by the House of Representatives as a long-serving member, received Russia's Order of Friendship, and was posthumously raised to the court rank of Junior Second Rank (ju nii) as of the date of his death.

Kono co-wrote Ketsudan: Kono fushi no seitai kan ishoku (Decision: The Kono Father and Son Living-Donor Liver Transplant, 2004) with his son Taro, and contributed to many collected volumes and magazine interviews on politics, diplomacy and electoral reform, including frequent pieces in the monthly Sekai. In 1976 he hosted an episode of the radio show All Night Nippon, and in 1981 he appeared as the historical figure Hara Ichinoshin in Shohei Imamura's film Eijanaika.

The Kono Statement was criticised for decades by some Japanese conservatives, who argued that it encouraged further demands from South Korea and disputed whether coercion by the military was proven. In 2014 the Abe government commissioned a study team to examine how the statement was drafted, though it did not revise it. As president of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations he faced whistleblower allegations, reported by the weekly Shukan Shincho in March 2009, about the handling of the federation's funds and personnel. His conciliatory stance towards China also drew domestic pressure, notably during the 2005 anti-Japanese protests in China.

Kono remained active in his final years as chairman of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade and was preparing another visit to China. He died of pancreatic cancer at a hospital in Tokyo on Monday 8 June 2026, aged 89. News of his death broke on 10 June, and on 11 June the office of his son Taro Kono confirmed it, saying a funeral had already been held with close relatives and that memorial gatherings would follow. China's Foreign Ministry expressed condolences, calling him an old friend of the Chinese people. On 22 July 2026 House of Representatives Speaker Eisuke Mori read a formal tribute in the chamber, and on 5 August 2026 the LDP held a party funeral attended by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and about 900 others.