Hirohide Ishida


Hirohide Ishida was a Japanese politician who served in the cabinets of multiple conservative administrations. In the 1980s, it was revealed that the KGB considered him to be an agent of the Soviet Union.

Early life

Born in Noshiro, Akita, Ishida entered Waseda University, where he majored in political science and economics. After graduating in 1939, he joined Chugai Shōgyō Shimpo and was appointed as its chief correspondent in Shanghai.

Political career

In 1947, Ishida was elected to the House of Representatives. He joined the Liberal [Democratic Party |Liberal Democratic Party] in 1955, serving as Chief Cabinet Secretary under two prime ministers, Tanzan Ishibashi and Nobusuke Kishi, from 23 December 1956 to 10 July 1957. Widely viewed as a friend and proponent of labor unions, he was also appointed to five terms as minister of labor under four different prime ministers, in addition to one term as minister of transport. While minister of labor under Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda in 1960, Ishida successfully negotiated the end of the 1960 Miike Coal Mine Strike, which remains the largest labor-management dispute in Japanese history.
In January 1963, Ishida published an article in Chūō Kōron predicting that the Liberal Democratic Party would lose power to the Japan Socialist Party by 1970 due to ongoing changes in Japanese society, including urbanization, increasing education, and the decreasing number of farmers, who were generally seen as fundamental supporters of the LDP. Ishida's article shocked the LDP, but was hailed as perceptive, and stimulated the party to make a number of reforms, including to changing its policies to increase its appeal among urban workers.

KGB agent

Ishida had formed and chaired the Japan-USSR Friendship Parliamentarians' Union in 1973, visiting Moscow in 1973, 1974 and 1977. In 1982 Stanislav Levchenko, a KGB Major who had defected to the United States in 1979, testified before the U.S. Congress that Ishida was an agent for the Soviet Union, codenamed "HOOVER". This was later confirmed in the "Mitrokhin Documents" smuggled out of the Soviet Union by Vasily Mitrokhin, a former KGB employee who fled to England in 1992. In response to Levchenko's revelations, the CIA and the Japanese police launched an investigation, and Ishida abruptly left politics in November 1983. However, the investigation ultimately concluded that Ishida had not leaked any sensitive information.

Ishida Rose Garden

An amateur rosarian, Ishida planted the yard of his house with various kind of roses. Two years after his death, his rose garden was donated to the City of Odate and named Ishida Rose Garden. It is since opened to the public every June.

Honours