Hirohide Ishida (石田 博英, Ishida Hirohide, 12 December 1914 – 14 October 1993) was a Japanese politician who served in the cabinets of multiple conservative administrations. In the 1980s, it was revealed that the KGB considered him to be an agent of the Soviet Union.
In January 1963, Ishida published an article in Chūō Kōron predicting that the Liberal Democratic Party would lose power to the Japan Socialist Party by 1970 due to ongoing changes in Japanese society, including urbanization, increasing education, and the decreasing number of farmers, who were generally seen as fundamental supporters of the LDP.[1][2] Ishida's article shocked the LDP, but was hailed as perceptive, and stimulated the party to make a number of reforms, including to changing its policies to increase its appeal among urban workers.[1][2]
KGB agent
Ishida had formed and chaired the Japan-USSR Friendship Parliamentarians' Union in 1973, visiting Moscow in 1973, 1974 and 1977. In 1982 Stanislav Levchenko, a KGB Major who had defected to the United States in 1979, testified before the U.S. Congress that Ishida was an agent for the Soviet Union, codenamed "HOOVER".[3][4] This was later confirmed in the "Mitrokhin Documents" smuggled out of the Soviet Union by Vasily Mitrokhin, a former KGB employee who fled to England in 1992. In response to Levchenko's revelations, the CIA and the Japanese police launched an investigation, and Ishida abruptly left politics in November 1983. However, the investigation ultimately concluded that Ishida had not leaked any sensitive information.
Ishida Rose Garden
Roses in bloom at Ishida Rose Garden
An amateur rosarian, Ishida planted the yard of his house with various kind of roses. Two years after his death, his rose garden was donated to the City of Odate and named Ishida Rose Garden (石田ローズガーデン, Ishida Rōzu Gāden).[5] It is since opened to the public every June.[6]
