武村正義氏死去、８８歳　細川内閣の官房長官

　自民党一党支配を軸とする「５５年体制」崩壊後の１９９０年代前半に巧みな政治手腕で政局の立役者となり、新党さきがけ代表や官房長官、蔵相を務めた武村正義（たけむら・まさよし）氏が９月２８日、死去した。８８歳だった。滋賀県出身。
　東大経済学部を卒業し、旧自治省に入省。滋賀県知事を経て、８６年、衆院旧滋賀全県区で自民党から初当選。連続当選４回。９３年６月、政治改革を訴え、鳩山由紀夫氏（元首相）らと同党を集団離党してさきがけを結成した。
　９３年８月、非自民の細川連立内閣で官房長官に就任したが、政権運営をめぐって、小沢一郎新生党代表幹事（当時）と激しく対立。さきがけは９４年４月の細川内閣退陣を受けて連立を離脱、同６月に自民、社会両党と村山連立内閣を誕生させ、武村氏は蔵相に就いた。（2022/10/01-23:33）

Former Japanese political heavyweight Masayoshi Takemura, who served as chief cabinet secretary and finance minister, died on Wednesday. He was 88.
   Takemura played a major role in the Japanese political world in the first half of the 1990s, after the collapse of the so-called 1955 system featuring one-party rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.
   A native of Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, Takemura entered the Home Affairs Ministry, now integrated into the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, after graduating from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Economics.
   After serving as Shiga governor, Takemura won a seat on the Diet, Japan's parliament, for the first time in 1986 as he ran in the year's election for the House of Representatives on the LDP ticket. He was elected to the Lower House three more times.
   In June 1993, Takemura and other LDP members, including Yukio Hatoyama, who later became prime minister, left the party as they aimed for political reforms, and established the now-defunct New Party Sakigake.