Komakichi Matsuoka

Komakichi Matsuoka (松岡駒吉, Matsuoka Komakichi, 8 April 1888 – 14 August 1958) was a Japanese politician and labor activist. Born in Iwami Province (present day Tottori Prefecture), Matsuoka was a steelworker at Japan Steel Works who joined Suzuki Bunji as a business agent at the predecessor to the Japanese Federation of Labour in 1917.^[1][2][3][4]

Komakichi Matsuoka
松岡 駒吉
Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office 21 May 1947 – 23 December 1948
Monarch	Shōwa
Preceded by	Takeshi Yamazaki
Succeeded by	Kijūrō Shidehara
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 21 May 1947 – 14 August 1958
Constituency	Tokyo 2nd district
Personal details
Born	(1888-04-08)8 April 1888 Iwami Province, Tottori Prefecture, Japan
Died	14 August 1958(1958-08-14) (aged 70)
Political party	Japan Socialist Party
Other political affiliations	Social Democratic Party

With a growing interest in politics, Matsuoka joined the pro-labour Social Democratic Party in 1926, and ran independently in the 1942 Japanese general election in a failed bid to join Japan's House of Representatives following the labour movement's eventual break up in 1940 due to an inability to organize and need to comply with the demands of Japan's imperialist expansionism in the 1930s.^[2]

Following the end of the war, the Japanese Federation of Labour was reborn in 1946 with Matsuoka as its president, and with the backing of the center-left Japan Socialist Party, he was elected to Tokyo's 2nd district on 25 April 1947 in a surprising win for the party with 143 of the 468 seats going to the JSP, with Matsuoka elected as speaker.^[1][2]

The predecessor to today's center-right Liberal Democratic Party retook the reins of government in the 1949 election, although Matsuoka held his seat in the lower house for 5 more terms.^[1]

With Japan's entry in the United Nations in December 1956, Matsuoka accompanied Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu to attend the United Nations General Assembly, and continued to serve his district until dying in office of liver disease on 14 August 1958 at 70 years of age.^[1][5]

References

1. Nakamura, Kikuo (1964). Komakichi Matsuoka. Keio University Press. ISSN 0389-0538.
2. Garon, Sheldon (1987). The State and Labor in Modern Japan. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520909809.
3. "YU-AI Labor Historical Museum". 友愛労働歴史館HP.
4. "松岡駒吉". kotobank.jp.
5. "KOMAKICHI MATSUOKA". New York Times. 16 August 1958.