Kasumi Kuroki
Kasumi Kuroki | |
|---|---|
 Kasuko in 1952 | |
| Prime Minister of Akashi | |
| In office 15 May 1974 – 9 October 1977 | |
| President | Yurika Ehara |
| Preceded by | Tarō Yukimura |
| Succeeded by | Naoko Nemoto |
| Minister of Public Welfare | |
| In office 8 May 1972 – 15 May 1974 | |
| Prime Minister | Masaki Ōshiro |
| Governor of Matō | |
| In office 1 September 1960 – 8 May 1972 | |
| Preceded by | Torajiro Hada |
| Succeeded by | Yoshiyuki Ban |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 November 1923 Enri, Matō, Akashi |
| Died | 8 September 2004 (aged 80) Suzu, Matō, Akashi |
| Nationality | Akashian |
| Political party | Socialist Party |
Kasumi Kuroki (Miranian: 霞 黒木; Gothic: ᚴ𐌰𐍃𐌿𐌼𐌹 ᚴ𐌿𐍂𐍉ᚴ𐌹; 30 November 1923 – 8 September 2004), commonly known as Kasuko, was an Akashian politician. She served as Prime Minister of Akashi from 1974 to 1977. Her term is best remembered for the nadir of the "siege economy", and the drastic measures to stabilise the economy that caused her resignation.
Early life
Kasumi was born on 30 November 1923 in Enri. Her parents worked as a fertiliser dealer and a sake brewer; she had two younger brothers.
Her adolescence was marked by the Akashian Civil War, which she called the start of her political awakening.
She moved to Hirakawa to attend university, where she majored in film studies. Her subsequent acting career was passable, and she supported herself with part-time jobs as a cashier in a department store and photographic model.
Political career
She joined the Socialist Party while in university, and was elected to the National Assembly in 1954 and 1958.
Initially, she was a moderate leftist within the party — an ironic beginning in light of her later identification with the hard left. She grew frustrated with the party's inability to commit to either reformism or cooperating with the Communist Party.
In 1959, she announced she would leave the National Assembly to stand in the upcoming provincial election. She was chosen as the leader of the SP's Matō branch in the interim.
Governor of Matō
Kasuko led the SP to a victory in the 1960 provincial election, winning a plurality. She formed a coalition with the Agrarian Party and National Cooperative Party, becoming Governor of Matō.
She was part of a wave of provincial leftist governments that included Kobi governor Seitarō Maeda and Shimachi governor Masahiro Mizuno. Her administration introduced an array of progressive reforms, including subsidised healthcare for the elderly, pollution controls, and traffic reform.
In the era before decentralisation, she sparred frequently with the government of Yurika Ehara over fiscal imbalances. She reformed property tax to make it more progressive, and introduced luxury taxes to earn additional funding. She launched large public works projects in conjunction with local mayors, building new parks, nurseries, children's playgrounds, schools, public swimming pools, cinemas, cafés, and concert halls.
As the country's first female governor, she advocated for more female participation in public life, and introduced feminist intiatives such as toughened anti-discrimination laws and hate crime laws.
Kasuko became a widely popular governor, and was easily re-elected in 1964 and 1968. She was seen as one of the rising stars of the party, but could not be easily placed among its factions. Her detractors mocked her as a "sewer socialist" (下水道社会主義者 Gesuidō shakai shugi-sha) for her single-minded focus on quality of life issues.
By 1968, she had come to side with the party's "revolutionary" faction. During the Summer of Freedom, she supported the protesters, and called for the new Sōhyō to push for worker control over industry rather than simply demanding higher wages.
Despite the encouragement of party leader Tarō Yukimura, she initially refused to join Masaki Ōshiro's coalition government, preferring to complete her term as governor. However, when the government fell in 1972, she took the opportunity to run in the resulting snap election, and returned to the National Assembly.
Minister of Public Welfare
She was appointed Minister of Public Welfare in Tarō's cabinet.
She presided over a great expansion of welfare and social services. She increased the size of social dividends paid out from the sovereign wealth fund, extended health care coverage, raised social security benefits, and increased federal aid to sports organisations.
She reduced the retirement age to 60 and encouraged voluntary retirement at that age.
During her time in cabinet, she voiced frustration with the remaining social insurance aspects of the welfare state, and called for its conversion to a wholly universal model. She came to share the party's frustration with Tarō's leadership, particularly after the SP's setback in the 1973 prefectural elections, and was seen as the strongest candidate to replace him.
Prime Minister of Akashi
Tarō was convinced to resign by senior party figures before the 1974 general election, with Kasuko taking over as party leader and Prime Minister only one month before. She succeeded in increasing the SP's plurality in the election, and continued the inherited coalition with the National Cooperative Party, National Union, and Agrarian Party.
Economy
Kasuko's term was defined by the "siege economy", like the other prime ministers of the decade. She worked closely with her finance minister, Naoko Nemoto, to maintain the leftist thrust of the coalition.
She introduced the Anti-Hoarding Law, a far-reaching maximum wage law. This capped annual incomes at ㋷5 million annually, enforced through a 100% marginal tax on all income above the threshold, and hiked wealth taxes to nationalise and "recirculate" idle capital.
One historian wrote that the passage of the Anti-Hoarding Law early in her tenure "served notice that she would be obstinate and resourceful in her attempts to maintain Akashi's standard of living and equality regardless of the consequences".
Her term saw a relative reduction in labour unrest compared to her predecessors, but the economy remained beset by wildcat and sympathy strikes. The government prioritised maintenance of full employment over reducing inflation. In an attempt to avoid firings, Kasuko introduced a program of reduced working hours and early retirement. By the mid-1970s, Akashi's working time had fallen to one of the shortest in Eracura, and the method helped cement the standard schedule of six-hour days and four-day workweeks.
Her government pushed for greater use of economic planning through the Hermes Programme, which she hoped would be "the tool that gives the deathblow to capitalism", and strengthened the cooperative sector — a large factor in maintaining the NCP's support.
Her tenure saw mild improvements in the economy. Growth rates followed an up-and-down pattern of 3,1% (1974), 1,1% (1975), 2,9% (1976), and 0,4% (1977). Unemployment declined, although double-digit inflation became a regular occurrence. Kasuko stubbornly maintained deficit spending to stimulate the economy, dismissing concerns about the growing national debt.
Domestic policy
As Prime Minister, Kasuko managed to achieve her ambition of reforming the Akashian welfare state. The main reform was of healthcare, where she abolished national health insurance and replaced it with a single-payer healthcare system.
She continued the decentralisation that had begun under her predecessors, and enjoyed good relations with the contemporary provincial governors — not least because all provinces but Takao had Socialist or Communist governors.
Several minor constitutional reforms were carried out that solidified the semi-presidential system that had developed since the Summer of Freedom. Kasuko got along very well with Yurikara, who later wrote in her memoirs that she was one of her favourite Prime Ministers, and persuaded the SP to support Yurikara for reelection in 1975, which she narrowly won.
Foreign policy
Kasuko worked closely with other Common Sphere governments to prevent capital flight and strengthen the Common Monetary System. The experience of the "siege economy" made her a convinced economic nationalist, and she argued so strongly for capital controls that it was said she hoped the CS would become "an impregnable fortress against capital".
She became a close friend of Osvald Bjerg, Delkora's foreign minister, and was a key supporter of his proposals to strengthen the organisation. Both shared the vision of the CS as a "third force" in Tyranian diplomacy, from different angles: Osvald focused on its independence from Ossorian and Acrean hegemony, while Kasuko concentrated on its broadly regulated economic model.
Kasuko's tenure marked a zenith in Akashi–Delkora relations. She made a state visit to Delkora in 1976, in which she famously insisted on meeting with First Minister of Cybria Jørna Winther, an old friend from her acting days. Kasuko allowed Cybria to establish a permanent trade office in Hirakawa, received Jørna and state treasurer Margrete Thorsen on a high-profile trade mission in 1977, and once instructed her foreign minister to "ensure that most of our trade with Delkora is conducted specifically with Cybria".
Resignation
The government faced a currency crisis in the autumn of 1977, with the ryō's fixed exchange rate at risk of collapsing. Kasuko and Naoko chose to take drastic action to shore up the currency, and introduced what was called the "black budget" (黒予算 kuro yosan). Its provisions included:
- hiked excise taxes to reduce consumption
- surcharges imposed to reduce imports
- excess profits tax levied on the largest companies
- introduction of some rationing
- readjustment of the ryō within the CMS, suspending its international convertibility in the process
One of the best-known features of rationing was "carless days" (車のない日 kuruma no nai hi), which forced owners of petrol-powered motor vehicles (except motorcycles) to not use their car one day of the week, enforced by tough fines. This was coupled with a reduction in the speed limit and restricting filling station hours to save petrol.
The "black budget" shocked the public, and is conventionally seen as the nadir of the "siege economy". Speaking in the National Assembly, Kasuko took responsibility for the drastic response to the currency crisis, and promised to resign after passage of the budget. This was an unusual tactic designed to hinder a motion of no confidence, and it succeeded. Despite some defections, including the Justice Party's split from the SP, the "black budget" passed with support from the Communist Party and Social Credit Party, and Kasuko resigned on 9 October 1977.
Later life
Kasuko resigned as Prime Minister and SP leader at the same time; Naoko was appointed interim Prime Minister until the SP chose its new leader, Yumiko Nagatsuki.
Kasuko continued as an MNA after her premiership, although with no further major roles in the party. She was re-elected in 1978, 1980, 1982, and 1986. She campaigned particularly hard in 1978 and 1980 and staunchly defended her record, telling a Conservative National Party candidate at a local debate, "It's easy to stand on the sidelines and attack; I doubt you would've lasted longer than me in government."
There was some talk in the SP of nominating her for the 1985 presidential election, but she rejected the idea out of fear she would be a liability for the party.
She retired from the National Assembly in 1990. In retirement, she continued to defend her record with the knowledge that the "black budget" inevitably overshadowed her other achievements. She wrote her autobiography, under the working title The Turbulent Years, before accepting the publisher's suggestion of the more provocative title Kasuko Was Right (かすこは正しかった Kasuko wa tadashikatta).
By coincidence, she was in the audience at a press conference held by Shinobu Furukawa and Emma Jørgensen in 1996, during the latter's state visit to Akashi. When Shinobu stated, "We have a great sympathy for the situation in Delkora. Almost 20 years ago, we had something similar in our 'black budget'", Kasuko stood up and quipped, "And I'd do it all over again!", causing laughter in the chamber.
Shūkan Gendai wrote in 1999 that "the tide had turned" on Kasuko's reputation: she was increasingly seen as one of the Akashian left's best prime ministers, being praised by figures such as Mikiko Kashiwagi and Keiko Nakayama, and was rated highly in opinion polls, confirming that "most Akashians now agree that Kasuko was right."
Death
Kasuko died in hospital on 8 September 2004 after a short illness. She was given a state funeral by Prime Minister Anna Carbone.
Private life
Kasuko was married with three children, and credited this experience with inspiring her strong push for parental leave and greater accommodation of working parents in political life.
She was a Buddhist, and supported the preservation of traditional Miranian clothing as everyday dress. She always wore a kimono in public, and the resulting "traditionalist and austere" image benefited her political career.