Iccho Itoh

In this Japanese name, the family name is Itoh.
Iccho Itoh
伊藤 一長
Mayor of Nagasaki
In office
1 May 1995  18 April 2007
Preceded by Hitoshi Motoshima
Succeeded by Tomihisa Taue
Personal details
Born (1945-08-23)August 23, 1945
Nagato, Yamaguchi, Japan
Died April 18, 2007(2007-04-18) (aged 61)
Nagasaki, Japan
Political party Liberal Democratic Party[1]
Alma mater Waseda University

Iccho Itoh (伊藤 一長 Itō Itchō, August 23, 1945 – April 18, 2007), born Kazunaga Itō (伊藤 一長 Itō Kazunaga), was the mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki; he first took office in 1995. He was a graduate from Waseda University, and majored in political science.

Career

He served as a member of the city assembly and later the prefectural assembly before he was elected as the mayor.[2] As the mayor of the city where an atomic bomb was dropped just two weeks before his birth, he made a speech at the International Court of Justice in the Hague on November 7, 1995 and stressed that the use of nuclear weapons is a violation of international law.

Assassination

On April 17, 2007, while campaigning for re-election for his fourth term, he was shot twice in the back at point-blank range in front of his campaign office outside the Nagasaki train station.[2] Itoh was taken to the Nagasaki University Hospital, where he died early the next morning due to loss of blood.[3] Police arrested Tetsuya Shiroo on suspicion of the murder after he was detained by Itoh's entourage following the shooting. Shiroo was a senior member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, an organized crime group.[2] As for the motive, "Shiroo reportedly clashed with Nagasaki city officials in 2003 after his car was damaged when he drove into a hole at the construction site."[4] There are also rumours that it was related to city construction projects.[5] The Nagasaki District Court sentenced Shiroo to death on May 26, 2008,[6] but the Fukuoka High Court revoked the death sentence.[7]

A new mayoral election was held on April 22, 2007. Makoto Yokoo (橫尾 誠 Yokoo Makoto), Itoh's son-in-law, and Tomihisa Taue (田上 富久 Taue Tomihisa), a city official, filed for candidacy.[8] Taue was elected.[9]

Itoh was the second mayor of Nagasaki to be shot; his immediate predecessor Hitoshi Motoshima (本島 等 Motoshima Hitoshi) was shot in 1990, but survived.

Name

His first name was originally pronounced Kazunaga with kun-yomi, but he elected to use more euphonious on-yomi form of Itchō for his mayoralty.[10]

Itoh's name was romanized as Itcho Ito by Mainichi Shimbun,[11] Reuters,[3] and Al-Jazeera.[12] CNN used the Iccho Ito romanization.[13] The Asahi Shimbun used Iccho Itoh.[14] Itoh spelled his name as Iccho Itoh in his English letter to George W. Bush.[15]

References

  1. Nagasaki mayor is shot and killed - International Herald Tribune
  2. 1 2 3 Kyodo News (2007-04-18). "Nagasaki Mayor Ito dies after being shot by gangster; police raid suspect's home". Japan Today. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
  3. 1 2 George Nishiyama (2007-04-17). "Mayor of Japanese city dies after being shot". Reuters. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
  4. "Nagasaki mayor is shot and killed". Retrieved 2007-04-19.
  5. 明報新聞網
  6. "Gangster convicted, sentenced to death in Japanese mayor shooting". International Herald Tribune. 2008-05-26. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  7. "Death sentence overturned in slaying of Nagasaki mayor". Asahi Shimbun. 2009-09-30. Archived from the original on October 3, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
  8. Kyodo News (2007-04-19). "Funeral held for slain Nagasaki mayor, son-in-law runs for election". Retrieved 2007-04-19.
  9. "Ex-city official defeats murdered mayor's son-in-law in Nagasaki election". Mainichi Daily News. 2007-04-23.
  10. "わたしのプロフィール (Nagasaki City Website)" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2007-02-14. Retrieved 2007-04-19.
  11. "Nagasaki mayor dies after being shot by gangster" Mainichi Daily News 19 April 2007
  12. "Japanese mayor shot dead" Al-Jazeera .net 18 April 2007
  13. "Murdered mayor sparks Japanese fears" CNN 18 April 2007
  14. "Nagasaki Mayor Itoh dies after being shot by gang member" The Asahi Shimbun 18 April 2007
  15. "Protest against a Nuclear Test conducted by the United States of America". 2006-08-31. Archived from the original on 2007-02-04. Retrieved 2007-04-24.

External links

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