竹入義勝氏死去、９７歳　元公明委員長、日中橋渡し役

　公明党委員長を務めた竹入義勝（たけいり・よしかつ）氏が２３日午前５時、肺炎のため福岡市内の病院で死去した。９７歳だった。長野県出身。葬儀は近親者で済ませた。喪主は長男正彦（まさひこ）氏。
　東京都議などを経て、１９６７年１月の衆院選に旧東京１０区で初当選。連続当選８回。同年２月に４１歳で党委員長に就任し、矢野絢也書記長と約２０年間にわたる「竹入―矢野」時代を築いた。
　野党の立場で旧社会党、旧民社党と連携する「社公民路線」を推進。その一方で、自民党とも気脈を通じてきた。
　７２年の日中国交正常化を巡る交渉では、７月に田中角栄首相の事実上の特使として中国を訪問し、周恩来首相と会談。日中両国間の橋渡し役を務めた。この際の会談記録は「竹入メモ」と呼ばれ、９月の田中氏訪中、日中共同声明の調印につながった。
　８４年の自民党総裁選では、旧民社党の佐々木良作委員長と共に、二階堂進副総裁の擁立劇に関与した。８６年に委員長を退任。９０年の衆院選に出馬せず、政界を引退した。
　９８年に公明党と支持母体の創価学会との「政教一致」などを指摘した回顧録を全国紙に掲載。党や学会から厳しい批判を受けた。（2023/12/26-18:23）

Former Komeito chief Yoshikatsu Takeiri, who played an important role for Japan's diplomatic normalization with China in 1972, died of pneumonia at a hospital in the city of Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, on Saturday, sources said Tuesday. He was 97.
   A native of Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, Takeiri won a seat on the Diet, Japan's parliament, for the first time in the January 1967 election for the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, running in the race from a Tokyo constituency, after serving as a member of the Tokyo metropolitan assembly.
   Takeiri became chairman of Komeito, then an opposition party, later that year and led the party for about 20 years with Junya Yano, then secretary-general of the party. Takeiri also led the opposition bloc among Komeito, the then Japan Socialist Party and the then Democratic Socialist Party. Komeito is now the coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
   In Japan-China negotiations for diplomatic normalization, Takeiri visited China in late July 1972 as a de facto special envoy of then Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and met with then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.
   Records of the meeting, handed to Tanaka and other Japanese officials, were called "Takeiri memo." The trip led to Tanaka's visit to China in September 1972 and eventually to the signing of the Japan-China joint statement on normalizing the two countries' diplomatic relations later that month.