竹下亘氏死去、７４歳　自民総務会長など歴任

　自民党総務会長や復興相などを歴任した竹下派会長の竹下亘（たけした・わたる）衆院議員が１７日午後９時１５分、食道がんのため東京都内の自宅で死去した。７４歳だった。島根県出身。葬儀は近親者のみで行う。後日、お別れの会を開く。
　ＮＨＫ記者を経て、異母兄の故竹下登元首相の秘書に転身。元首相の後継者として、２０００年の衆院選に島根２区から出馬し初当選した。当選７回。１７年には国対委員長として「共謀罪」の構成要件を改めた「テロ等準備罪」を新設する改正組織犯罪処罰法を成立に導いた。
　元首相が創設した派閥「経世会」（旧竹下派）の流れをくむ平成研究会の会長職を１８年４月に額賀福志郎元財務相から引き継ぎ、額賀派から竹下派に衣替え。１９年１月に食道がんを公表し、入院するなどして治療に専念した。同年１１月に復帰し、２１年７月に政界引退を表明した。（2021/09/18-15:21）

Wataru Takeshita, a veteran Japanese lawmaker and a heavyweight in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, died at his home in Tokyo on Friday. He was 74.
   Takeshita, elected to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, seven times, served in key posts including chairman of the LDP's General Council and minister in charge of reconstruction from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
   In July, he expressed his intention to retire from politics without running in the next Lower House election.
   A native of Shimane Prefecture, Takeshita won a parliamentary seat for the first time in the 2000 Lower House election from the No. 2 constituency in the western prefecture as the successor to the late former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, his older half-brother.
   As the LDP's parliamentary affairs chief, Takeshita led efforts to enact a law criminalizing conspiracy to commit terrorism in 2017.