Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Shoyama, Thomas Kunito, 1916-2006
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- T.K. Shoyama
- Tommy Shoyama
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1916-2006
History
Thomas Kunito (Tommy) Shoyama was born on September 24, 1916, in Kamloops, British Columbia. He earned Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Bachelor of Commerce degrees from the University of British Columbia in 1938. From 1939 to 1945, Shoyama served as editor of the New Canadian, a civil rights newspaper for Japanese-Canadians. In 1946, he worked briefly as a journalist for the Intelligence Corps of the Canadian Army before he moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, to work for the Government of Saskatchewan.
During his tenure with the Government of Saskatchewan, Shoyama was first hired as a research economist. In 1950, he was appointed as secretary to the Economic Advisory and Planning Board. He also served as economic advisor to Premier T.C. Douglas (1950-1961) and Premier W.S. Lloyd (1961-1964).
In 1964, Shoyama moved to Ottawa and became a senior research economist with the Economic Council of Canada. Within the federal government, his appointments included: Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance (1968), Assistant Deputy Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources (1974), and Deputy Minister of Finance (1975). He retired from the federal civil service in 1979 and soon after was appointed as advisor to the Privy Council on economic aspects of the Constitution. In 1980, he became a visiting professor at the University of Victoria in its School of Public Administration and its Centre for Pacific and Oriental Studies.
Awards and honours received by Shoyama included: Officer of the Order of Canada (1978); the Outstanding Achievement Award in the Public Service of Canada (1982); the Vanier Medal from the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (1982); honourary degrees from the University of British Columbia (1984) and University of Victoria (1999); and the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Government of Japan (1992). The Pearson-Shoyama Institute in Ottawa was partly named in Shoyama's honour. As well, the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, established at the University of Regina in 2007, was partly named in Shoyama's honour.
Thomas Shoyama died in Victoria on December 22, 2006.
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Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
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Rules and/or conventions used
Rules for Archival Description (RAD)
Status
Final
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Authority record created on 2011-03-21. Approved 2012-03-06. Last modified on 2017-11-29.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
AMICUS Authorities - no entry found.
Content of the fonds (F 131 - W.S. Lloyd fonds).
Various websites.