secretary-general 復習
自民党元幹事長の加藤紘一氏が亡くなりましたが、死因はまだ解明されていないそうです。
Veteran LDP lawmaker Koichi Kato dies at age 77
Koichi Kato, a retired Liberal Democratic Party politician who was once widely considered as a top prospect to become prime minister, died at a Tokyo hospital on Friday, sources said. He was 77.
The cause of his death was not immediately known.
Kato, a former secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, was a key player in the LDP-Social Democratic Party coalition government in 1994.
Fluent in both Chinese and English, he joined the Foreign Ministry after graduating from the University of Tokyo and once served as the head of the Japan-China Friendship Association.
He was elected to the Lower House from Yamagata Prefecture for the first time in 1972, and served as the director-general of the Defense Agency in 1984 and chief Cabinet secretary in 1991.
Kato emerged as a potential candidate for the prime minister’s job after supporting the LDP-SDP coalition government.
In 2000, Kato, who headed his own intraparty faction, urged then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to step down, threatening to have his faction members support a no-confidence motion that was to be submitted by opposition parties.
But many members of Kato’s faction failed to follow his guidance, and “the Rebellion of Kato” ended in failure.
In 2002 he resigned as a Diet member to take responsibility over a tax evasion scandal involving one of his staffers and his own misappropriation of political funds for private use.
He was re-elected to the Lower House in 2003 but lost his seat in the 2012 general election.
今回取り上げる表現は"secretary-general"です。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』第4版(大修館)を引いてみると、「事務総長、書記長」とありました。
"secretary"には、ご存知の通り「秘書」などの意味がありますが、他にも「長官」や「大臣補佐」などの意味もあります。
また、"general"には「一般の」という意味の他に「将官級の、高い地位の、総…、…長官」などの意味があることが分かりました。記事では「（自民党）幹事長」を指しています。
記事の中に、"secretary-general"のほかにも"director-general"もあり、「長官」や「(大企業の)社長」という意味になります。(Akim)
