Yukio Aoshima

was a Japanese politician who served as Governor of Tokyo from 1995 to 1999. He is also well known as a TV actor, novelist, film director, screenwriter and songwriter.

Early life and artistic career Yukio was born in Nihonbashi ward of Tokyo City in 1932. His father was an entrepreneur who had been running a bento catering business. He began writing manzai comedy while enrolled as a student at Waseda University and made his debut as a comedy writer in Japan's fledgling television industry.

He rose to fame as the star of programs such as and . He produced, directed and starred in the film , which was a contestant in the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. His first novel, , won the Naoki Prize in 1981. Aoshima wrote the hit 1961 song , performed by Hajime Hana and the Crazy Cats, of which Ueki was a member. Aoshima characterized the song as "the saga of a happy-go-lucky salaryman who is unable to avoid the temptations of drink and gambling" with the resonant lyric "I know it's wrong, but I can't give it up." He linked the song to his political views later on, writing that "we have spent several decades creating a society and economy oriented towards mass production, mass distribution, mass consumption, and mass waste. We know something is amiss, but we are so caught up in it that we cannot give it up."

Political career

House of Councillors Aoshima was elected to the House of Councillors in the 1968 election as a national block write-in candidate, capitalizing on his fame to win 1.2 million votes and placing second in the block behind Shintaro Ishihara. He refused to give outdoor speeches in the style of other Japanese politicians, and instead went on a trip to Europe during the campaigning season. He nonetheless remained in the Diet until 1995, when he resigned to run for Governor of Tokyo.

As governor, Aoshima cancelled a costly "World City" exposition that Governor Shun'ichi Suzuki planned to have held in Odaiba in 1996, calling it a "legacy of the bubble economy era". In the wake of this act, which had formed the bulk of the basis for Aoshima's gubernatorial campaign, his administration was viewed as largely ineffective. He resigned after four years in office, by which time he was known as "Mr. Broken Manifesto".

Aoshima ran for the House of Councillors again in the 2001 election and the 2004 election but failed to win a seat. He died of myelodysplastic syndrome in December 2006 at the age of 74.