Yamaguchi Prefecture - Famous People From Yamaguchi

Famous People From Yamaguchi

• Kasumi Ishikawa, silver medalist in Women's Team Table Tennis at the London 2012 Olympics, is from Yamaguchi City in Yamaguchi prefecture.
• Kido Takayoshi, one of the two main architects of the Meiji Restoration
• Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe represented first Yamaguchi's 1st then 4th district in the House of Representatives; his father represented Yamaguchi as well.
• Atsushi Tamura of the comic duo London Boots Ichi-go Ni-go is from Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi.
• Teruzane Utada music producer, manager and father of Utada Hikaru is from somewhere in Yamaguchi Prefecture, as mentioned on the latter's blog.
• Sayumi Michishige, a Japanese idol who is one of the 6th generation members of Japanese idol group Morning Musume was born in Yamaguchi.
• Raizo Tanaka, a Japanese rear admiral during World War II. Tanaka was the commander of the Midway invasion force and later made famous for his efforts to keep Japanese forces on Guadalcanal in supply with the "Tokyo Express."
• Prime Minister Naoto Kan was born in Ube in 1946.
• Karyu, guitarist of the band D'espairsRay is from Yamaguchi. The band had a "homecoming" live there in 2007 and 2009.
• Harukichi Yamaguchi, founder of the Yamaguchi-gumi, born near Kobe but his entire family hailed from Yamaguchi.
• Shintaro Abe, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and General Secretary of the LDP.
• Itō Hirobumi, a samurai of Chōshū domain, Japanese statesman, four-time Prime Minister of Japan (the 1st, 5th, 7th and 10th), genrō and Resident-General of Korea.
• Yasunori Mitsuda, composer