Okinori Kaya

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 30 January 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.

Kaya was paroled in 1955 and his sentence was later commuted to time already served. 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. In June 1959, Kishi appointed Kaya as chairman of the LDP Foreign Affairs Research Council, where he played a key role in the 1960 revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.

Ikeda, who had followed Kishi as prime minister, made Kaya Chairman of the Policy Research Council in 1962. In the 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.