Heizo Takenaka: Convincing Background of His “Exoneration” From Pasona & Orix

Heizo Takenaka, 71, a professor emeritus at Keio University who has been a major presence in the political and business world, has reached a turning point: on July 19, Pasona Group, a major staffing agency, announced that Takenaka will step down as chairman in August.

In January 2013, Takenaka was appointed by the Shinzo Abe administration as a member of the Industrial Competitiveness Council of the Japan Economic Revitalization Headquarters and the Advisory Council on Special Zones for the National Strategy Special Zones. Takenaka has been a member of the Cabinet of the previous cabinet.

Takenaka has been heavily employed by successive cabinets. Although he denies it, there is no doubt that he has exerted a great deal of influence as a “flag bearer” for the neoliberalism promoted by the Koizumi administration. While extolling the supremacy of Western-style competition, he has also been accused of being responsible for the creation of shuttered shopping malls in rural areas.

(A desk working for a national newspaper’s economics department) A definitive assessment of Mr. Takenaka was given in the book “Takenaka Heizo: Market and Power” by journalist Minoru Sasaki. The book meticulously traced Takenaka’s light and shadow, and won both the Oya Soichi Nonfiction Award and the Shincho Documentary Award.

The book refers to various allegations surrounding Takenaka, some of which are hard to overlook. For example, the book details how Takenaka, a former employee of the Japan Development Bank, became a researcher at Harvard University in the U.S. and “kept to himself” the joint research he conducted with his senior colleagues at the bank.

Furthermore, as a “permanent traveler,” that is, someone who stays in one country for a tax-free period and moves to another country to live before becoming a resident, the view that Takenaka himself may be avoiding taxes has surfaced, and indeed some media have reported it as such.

Takenaka once spoke enthusiastically about permanent travelers in one of his classes when he was an assistant professor. He also clearly stated that there were loopholes in the law, and after he became a politician, I once wanted to question him about the truth of his words (laughs).

Takenaka, a cabinet minister from the private sector, was elected to the upper house of the Diet in 2004. In 2006, however, he resigned from the Diet and announced his retirement from politics, returning to Keio University.

He had served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pasona Group since August 2009, but has now reportedly asked to step down, saying that he would like to entrust his position to a younger leader.

In addition, ORIX also announced in April that Takenaka would step down as a director.

Yoshihiko Miyauchi, the founder of ORIX, has been working with Takenaka on deregulation. On the other hand, there were some who questioned, “How long will he remain on the board?” On the other hand, there were some who questioned, “How long will he remain on the board?

On the other hand, it has been pointed out that the government was the initial instigator of the “removal of Takenaka,” which has now unexpectedly continued.

Takenaka was removed as a member of the National Strategic Special Zone Advisory Council in April of this year. The Kishida administration advocates a ‘new capitalism’ that distances itself from the economic policies of the Abe and Kan administrations. Although the stance of this policy is unclear in some areas, it appears that the intention is to break away from neoliberalism (i.e., deregulation), which emphasizes free competition in the marketplace,” he said.

Takenaka is also a member of the “Council for the Realization of the Digital Rural City State Concept” (chaired by Prime Minister Kishida), which many people have forgotten about, but there is a possibility that he will also be “relieved of his post.

Kishida’s administration is aiming to emphasize the difference between its economic policies and those of previous administrations. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to imagine that Mr. Takenaka, who has been heavily employed by previous administrations, will remain in a key position indefinitely.

According to the Keio University alumnus mentioned above, Takenaka once said that when he was a student, he had so little money that he had to “chew on cabbage” to make ends meet. He went on to create an era of prosperity that was unimaginable in his student days. However, time has passed, and the “era” that Mr. Takenaka built may be coming to an end.