Takeru Inukai

Takeru Inukai (犬養 健, Inukai Takeru^?, 28 July 1896 – 28 August 1960) was a Japanese politician and author active in Shōwa period Japan. He was the third son of Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi.

Biography

Inukai was born in the Ushigome district of Tokyo, and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University with a degree in philosophy. Interested in literature from his student days, he gravitated to the Shirakaba ("White Birch") literary society due to its liberal humanistic outlook. His works were influenced by Mushanokoji Saneatsu and Nagayo Yoshiro, and he became a member of the Japanese chapter of the International PEN.

He ran for a seat in the lower house of the Japanese Diet, under the Rikken Seiyūkai party in 1930, after his father's death. He was later a press secretary under the first Konoe Fumimaro administration. He split with the Rikken Seiyūkai in 1939. Although arrested under suspicion in the Sorge Spy Incident, he returned to Diet in the Japanese general election, 1942.

As his father, Inukai Tsuyoshi, had always supported friendly relations with China, he had contacts and good relations with Chinese politicians during the pre-war period. After his father's assassination in the May 15 Incident, he continued to strive for restoration of good Sino-Japanese relations, and especially provided support to the Wang Jingwei government in hopes that it would bring the stability that would allow Japan to withdraw its troops from the China quagmire.

After World War II in 1945, Inukai helped organize the Japan Progressive Party, of which he became chairman. The party merged with the forerunner of the Liberal Democratic Party in 1948. In 1952, under the 4th Yoshida Shigeru cabinet, Inukai became Minister of Justice. He continued in the same position in the 5th Yoshida cabinet in 1953. However, in the Shipbuilding Scandal of 1954 (under pressure from Prime Minister Yoshida), Inukai refused to approve of the prosecution of ex-Prime Minister Sato Eisaku, who had been indicted for corruption and misuse of public funds. Afterwards, he resigned as Justice Minister in protest.

Inukai died in 1960 at the age of 64. His son, Inukai Yasuhiko (b.1928) was president of Kyodo News.