Masaki Ōshiro
Masaki Ōshiro | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Prime Minister of Akashi | |
| In office 1 September 1970 – 8 May 1972 | |
| President | Yurika Ehara |
| Preceded by | Yurika Ehara |
| Succeeded by | Tarō Yukimura |
| Minister of Local Governance | |
| In office 8 May 1972 – 15 May 1974 | |
| Prime Minister | Tarō Yukimura |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 1 September 1962 – 1 September 1970 | |
| Prime Minister | Yurika Ehara |
| Minister of Planning | |
| In office 1 September 1958 – 1 September 1962 | |
| Prime Minister | Yurika Ehara |
| Minister of Agriculture | |
| In office 1 September 1942 – 1 September 1958 | |
| Prime Minister | Yurika Ehara |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 23 February 1899 Eisen, Kobi, Akashi |
| Died | 2 September 1987 (aged 88) Eisen, Kobi, Akashi |
| Nationality | Akashian |
| Political party | National Union |
| Alma mater | University of Rumoi |
| Occupation | Administrative scrivener |
Masaki Ōshiro (Miranian: 真樹 大城; Gothic: 𐌼𐌰𐍃𐌰ᚴ𐌹 𐍉𐍊𐌹𐍂𐍉; 23 February 1899 – 2 September 1987), was an Akashian politician. He served as Prime Minister of Akashi from 1970 to 1972, and was the last National Union party leader to win a general election.
Early life
Masaki was born on 23 February 1899 in Eisen. He was born into a modestly well-off family and was the oldest of three siblings.
He attended the University of Rumoi, where he studied law. After graduation, he worked as an administrative scrivener. Due to the nature of his work, he frequently took on farmers as clients, and thus developed a lifelong interest in matters of agrarian policy.
Political career
Masaki grew politically active in the 1920s and 1930s. Disillusioned with the large parties of the day, he tried to stand for office as an independent candidate, but was unsuccessful in winning a seat.
During the Akashian Civil War, he initially sided with the government of the "old republic", fleeing his home to take refuge in Kagishi. When the "old republic" was destroyed, he switched his allegiance to Yurika Ehara's National Renewal Movement. He became a member of the National Union when the war ended.
He was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1940, and was subsequently elected to the National Assembly in 1942. He held various ministerial posts in the Yurikara cabinet: Minister of Agriculture (1942–1958), Minister of Planning (1958–1962), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1962–1970). Yurikara especially valued his service as agriculture minister, where he contributed much to building good relations with the Agrarian Party.
During the Summer of Freedom, he supported Yurikara's restrained course and opposed the "right-wing" faction that emerged in the NU advocating that order be restored by force if necessary.
National Union leader
When Yurikara resigned as party leader in 1969, Masaki won the resulting leadership election.
With less than a year before the next general election, he spent much of his time with internal reforms, struggling to overcome the legacy of Yurikara's personalised leadership and the lack of a party apparatus. He introduced changes to democratise the party, instituting a primary election system and increasing rank-and-file influence over the party.
His tenure as party leader was plagued by the very public fracture within the party, exposed by the Summer of Freedom. He represented the party's "left-wing" faction, advocating for collaboration with the Socialist Party, and faced off against the "right-wing" faction that leaned more conservative.
Prime Minister of Akashi
Masaki led the NU into the 1970 general election, the first to use a parallel voting system. The party benefited from his low-key personality, which appealed to a public exhausted by the chaos caused by the Summer of Freedom, and the simultaneous presidential election in which Yurikara was running for re-election. While the party's proportional vote fell by over 21%, it managed to win over 50% of constituency votes, and thus eked out a bare majority of 101 out of 200 seats.
Although the NU had a majority of one seat, the internal fracture made it more precarious than Yurikara's unquestioned dominance. In an attempt to shore up his government, he formed a coalition with the Socialist Party and National Cooperative Party. He appointed NCP leader Naoko Nemoto as finance minister, and had to give several major ministries to the SP.
Masaki's time in office was defined by the start of the "siege economy". He struggled with economic stagnation and the radicalism of the Sōhyō, manifested in wildcat strikes.
His government tried to simulate the economy through deficit spending. It increased social spending and introduced the sliding wage scale and indexation of pensions to inflation. However, the economy only managed 0,8% growth in 1970 and a decrease of -0,5% in 1971.
A veteran of the Yurikarist era, Masaki was torn between mainstream economics and the SP's efforts to push the cabinet leftwards. He was uncomfortable with the high deficit being run and feared a price/wage spiral would ensue. Overall, he preferred to ally with the SP in his internal struggle against the NU's "right-wingers".
His popularity declined during his premiership. The public that once saw him as calming and reliable in 1970 now considered him dithering and ineffective.
His government fell in the spring of 1972 when it lost a budget vote. Enough NU MNAs rebelled and voted against to cause a 100–100 tie, which was a defeat as the Speaker of the National Assembly does not have a casting vote. The resulting snap election destroyed the NU as a major party, rendering it the medium-sized one it has been since.
Later career
Masaki resigned as the NU leader after the election. Despite the magnitude of the defeat, the party did not blame him for it, and in fact re-elected him leader in the subsequent primary. Masaki himself saw a silver lining in the disastrous election: most of the MNAs that lost re-election had been "right-wingers", and thus his faction was left firmly in charge of the party.
The new Socialist prime minister, Tarō Yukimura, kept Masaki in the cabinet as Minister of Local Governance. In this capacity, he contributed to ongoing decentralisation reforms that strengthened local government. He chose to leave the government when Tarō resigned, and retired from the National Assembly in 1974.
Having left politics, Masaki retired to his hometown of Eisen, where he lived with his family.
Death
Masaki died on 2 September 1987 of natural causes, aged 88.
Private life
Masaki was married and had 2 children.