Junya Koizumi
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Junya Koizumi (小泉純也 Koizumi Jun'ya?) (January 24, 1904 - August 10, 1969) was a Japanese politician who served as Director General of the Japan Defense Agency during the 1960s.
Koizumi was born in Higashi-Kaseda, Kagoshima Prefecture (now part of Minami-Satsuma). He attended high school at night while working in a department store, and then attended law classes at Nihon University while working as a secretary to a Diet member. He graduated in 1930 and joined the Rikken Minseito political party. He was elected to the Diet in 1937.
He married Yoshie Koizumi, the daughter of Rikken Minseito director and postal minister Matajiro Koizumi. Junya and Yoshie Koizumi had six children, including Junichiro Koizumi, who later became the Prime Minister of Japan.
Junya Koizumi built an airfield in Kagoshima prefecture in 1944, from which kamikaze pilots flew to their deaths in World War II.[citation needed]
Koizumi was purged from politics by the Allied occupation government in the late 1940s, but returned to the Diet in 1952. He was a close ally of Nobusuke Kishi in the postwar years, served as Vice-Minister of Justice under Ichiro Hatoyama and became Director General of the Defense Agency under Hayato Ikeda and Eisaku Sato.
