Okinori Kaya

Okinori Kaya (賀屋 興宣) was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who served as Minister of Finance from 1937 to 1938 and 1941 to 1944, and as Minister of Justice from 1963 to 1964.

Born in Hiroshima, Kaya graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and joined the Ministry of Finance. After a successful career he became Minister of Finance in the first cabinet of Fumimaro Konoe and again in the wartime cabinet of Hideki Tojo. After the Japanese surrender he was sentenced to life in prison by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Paroled in 1955, Kaya was rehabilitated and served in the House of Representatives for the Liberal Democratic Party, and as Minister of Justice under Hayato Ikeda.

Early life
Okinori Fujii was born on January 30, 1889, in Hiroshima, as the son of a scholar. At the age of four, he was adopted by his mother's family to carry on the lineage of the Kaya family.

Kaya attended the prestigious First Higher School in Tokyo where he was classmates with Jōtarō Kawakami, who became a socialist leader later in life. Despite their serious political differences, the two men remained friends. Kaya then went on to Tokyo Imperial University. After graduating he joined the Ministry of Finance, taking the path of an elite bureaucrat.

In the Ministry Kaya worked in the Budget Bureau, often handling the army and naval budget. He became a representative of the "reform bureaucrats" in the Ministry. Hayato Ikeda, who was also from Hiroshima, became a close subordinate. Kaya became chief of the Budget Bureau in 1934, of the Finance Bureau in 1936, and in 1937 he was appointed Vice Minister of Finance. When Fumimaro Konoe formed his cabinet in June the same year Kaya was selected as Minister of Finance. He served until the end of the cabinet in May 1938, and was afterwards appointed a lifetime member of the House of Peers.

In August 1938 Kaya was appointed president of the North China Development Company, a quasi-governmental company to promote industrial development in North China under Japanese control. He remained in this position until he was reappointed Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Hideki Tojo in October 1941. As such he was in charge of wartime finances before resigning in February 1944.

Post-war career
After the surrender of Japan, Kaya was designated as a war criminal for his role in the wartime government. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentenced him to life in prison. In Sugamo Prison he befriended his fellow inmate and former cabinet colleague Nobusuke Kishi.

Kaya was paroled in 1955. He became a private adviser to Kishi when the latter became prime minister in 1957. Kaya was elected to the House of Representatives for the Liberal Democratic Party in the 1958 general election. He was part of the Kishi's faction, but was also close to his former subordinate Ikeda. He worked on the revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty under Kishi.

Ikeda, who had followed Kishi as prime minister, made Kaya Chairman of the Policy Research Council in 1962. In same year he became chairman of the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association, a position he held until his death. In 1963 joined the cabinet as Minister of Justice and served as such until 1964. Kaya retired from the Diet in 1972 and died in 1977.

Kaya was an advocate for strong ties with Taiwan, South Korea and the United States. A staunch conservative and anti-communist, an obituary quotes him as saying "communism means only a dog's life."