Koizumi Matajirō was the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. He was a scaffolder

Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a temporary structure used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures. It is usually a modular system of metal pipes or tubes, although it can be from other materials...

's son from Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

, known as "wild man" and "irezumi

Irezumi

Irezumi is a Japanese word that refers to the insertion of ink under the skin to leave a permanent, usually decorative mark; a form of tattooing....

 minister" because he had a large tattoo

Tattoo

A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...

 of a red dragon on his back. He sought to privatise the Post Office.

Koizumi led a movement to establish universal suffrage

Suffrage

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...

 during the Taishō period

Taisho period

The , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...

. Koizumi's son-in-law, Junya Koizumi

Junya Koizumi

was a Japanese politician who served as Director General of the Japan Defense Agency during the 1960s.Koizumi was born in Higashi-Kaseda, Kagoshima Prefecture . He attended high school at night while working in a department store, and then attended law classes at Nihon University while working as a...

, became a director general of the Defense Agency and a second-generation Diet

Diet of Japan

The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally...

 member.

Koizumi's grandson, Junichiro Koizumi

Junichiro Koizumi

is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics when his term in parliament ended.Widely seen as a maverick leader of the Liberal Democratic Party , he became known as an economic reformer, focusing on Japan's government debt and the...

, served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006 and inherited his grandfather's idea of postal privatization; Junichiro had himself been Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in 1992-93 under Kiichi Miyazawa

Kiichi Miyazawa

was a Japanese politician and the 78th Prime Minister from November 5, 1991 to August 9, 1993.-Early life and career:Miyazawa was born in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University with a degree in law. In 1942 he joined the Ministry of Finance...

.

See also

• Koizumi family
  Koizumi family
  The Koizumi family has been prominent in Japanese politics since the early 1900s. Notable members of this family include:* Matajiro Koizumi – Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, he was known as the "wild man" and "tattoo minister" because of a large dragon Japanese tattoo on his...