Kazuo Shii

Kazuo Shii
Kazuo Shii
	志位和夫
	Shii in 2017
Chairman of the Japanese Communist Party
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 24 November 2000
Preceded by	Tetsuzō Fuwa
Member of the House of Representatives
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 18 July 1993
Constituency	Southern Kanto proportional representation block
Personal details
Born	29 July 1954; Yotsukaidō, Japan
Political party	Japanese Communist Party
Alma mater	University of Tokyo
Occupation	Politician and staff of the political party
Website	shii.gr.jp

Kazuo Shii (志位和夫, Shii Kazuo, born 29 July 1954) is a Japanese politician and Chairman of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) since 2000.

Early life

Shii was born in Yotsukaidō in Chiba Prefecture, the son of two schoolteachers. He graduated with the Bachelor of Engineering degree in Physics and Engineering from the University of Tokyo. He joined the JCP during his first year at the University and became an active participant in the party's student wing. After graduation, he got a job in the JCP-Tokyo Committee to take charge of youth student movement, just like Waseda University. He worked in the Central Committee of the JCP from 1982.

Political career

In 1990 Shii became the head of the Secretariat and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives in 1993. At the party congress in 2000 Shii was elected as party leader.

Shii became the first JCP chairman to visit South Korea and the first Japanese politician to visit the site of Seodaemun Prison. He paid tribute to the memory of Korean anti-colonial activists who were imprisoned during the period of Japanese colonialism.

In 2020, Shii denounced the Chinese government, saying that "the Chinese leadership’s mistake is extremely serious. That action does not deserve the name of the Communist Party", referring to China's actions in South China Sea.[1]

Interests

Shii plays the piano; he has said music is "a part of [his] life" and seriously considered becoming a musician. When he was about to begin university, he considered majoring in music or physics, and chose physics in the end. Shii says his favorite composers are Franz Schubert and Dmitri Shostakovich.[2]

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References

"China's Communist Party a threat to peace, says Japanese counterpart". South China Morning Post. 20 January 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
http://edition.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/magazine/99/1105/leader.japan.html

External links

Official website (in Japanese)
Interview with C. B. Liddell in Metropolis magazine. Published 15 January 2009.
Kazuo Shii: Comments from the Japanese Communist Party on the upcoming election. YouTube video (in English) of Kazuo Shii discussing the 2014 Japanese general election. Uploaded 8 December 2014.

House of Representatives of Japan
New title Introduction of proportional representation	Representative for the Southern Kantō PR block 1996–	Incumbent
Preceded by Ken'ichi Ueno Hideo Usui Kazuo Eguchi Kazuo Torii Masayuki Okajima	Representative for Chiba 1st district 1993–1996 Served alongside: Yoshihiko Noda, Masayuki Okajima, Kazuo Torii, Hideo Usui	District eliminated
Party political offices
Preceded by Tetsuzō Fuwa	JCP central committee chairman 2000–	Incumbent
Preceded by Mitsuhiro Kaneko	Head of the JCP central committee secretariat 1990–2000	Succeeded by Tadayoshi Ichida

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[1] "China's Communist Party a threat to peace, says Japanese counterpart". South China Morning Post. 20 January 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2020.

[2] ttp://edition.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/magazine/99/1105/leader.japan.html