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94-601: Kakuei Tanaka ( 田中 角栄 , Tanaka Kakuei , 4 May 1918 – 16 December 1993) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. Known for his background in construction and earthy and tenacious political style, Tanaka is the only modern Japanese prime minister who did not finish high school or graduate from a university. Born in Niigata Prefecture to a poor farmer, Tanaka left school at age 14. He later received an engineering education and founded his own construction company in 1936. In 1940, he

188-449: A Chinese-inspired legal system known as ritsuryō was enacted in the late Asuka period and early Nara period . It described a government based on an elaborate and rational meritocratic bureaucracy, serving, in theory, under the ultimate authority of the emperor ; although in practice, real power was often held elsewhere, such as in the hands of the Fujiwara clan , who intermarried with

282-594: A candidate for the party in Niigata Prefecture for the first postwar election in April 1946 . During this first bid for a Diet seat, Tanaka relied on local political notables and associates from Riken to support his campaign. He worked around the election laws of the time by opening a branch office in Kashiwazaki and placing large "Tanaka" sign on the building to gain name recognition. However, his bid unraveled as three of

376-463: A caricature of Tanaka dodging various celebrities in a quest to collect gold bars and grow wealthy, with the title punning on the Japanese term for "prime minister", Sōri (総理). Tanaka remained in convalescence through the election of 1986 , where he retained his Diet seat. On New Year's Day of 1987, he made his first public appearance since the stroke, and was clearly in poor condition: half of his face

470-564: A child. Tanaka excelled in school, but his family’s poverty meant he could not pursue higher education after graduating from higher elementary school at the age of fourteen. Instead, Tanaka found work as a manual laborer, but he later quit this job and went to Tokyo in 1934, hoping to work under the Viscount Masatoshi Ōkōchi , head of the Riken Concern, who had championed the development of rural prefectures like Niigata. In Tokyo, Tanaka

564-471: A combination of good management and good luck, brought it back into operation in 1951. In that year's election, he was re-elected to the Diet in a landslide victory , and many of the railroad's employees came out to campaign for him. That year's election was also the first in which he was supported by billionaire capitalist Kenji Osano  [ ja ] , who would remain one of Tanaka's most loyal supporters to

658-409: A hundred people who would assist him in the campaign. Tanaka targeted rural voters; he became known for his diligence in visiting remote villages. He was elected in third place out of five seats. He took his Diet seat as a member of the new Democratic Party (民主党, Minshuto ). In the Diet, he became friends with former prime minister Kijūrō Shidehara and joined Shidehara's Dōshi Club . Then in 1948,

752-469: A large faction in the party by political maneuvering and extensive use of money. After a power struggle with Takeo Fukuda , Tanaka succeeded Eisaku Satō as prime minister in 1972. Domestically, he pursued his "Plan to Remodel the Japanese Archipelago", an infrastructure development program, before it was shelved due to inflation and the 1973 oil crisis . In 1972, Tanaka established relations with

846-551: A large number of new LDP representatives dubbed " Koizumi Children " in the 2005 election, and Ichiro Ozawa , who did the same for the Democratic Party of Japan in the 2009 election. However, neither the "Koizumi Children" nor the "Ozawa Children" showed the same degree of loyalty as the Tanaka faction, with many "Koizumi Children" voting against Koizumi's reform agenda, and many "Ozawa Children" voting against Ozawa in his 2010 bid for

940-568: A major point of contention between the two countries. Tanaka reportedly asked Zhou "What is your view on the Senkaku Islands? Some people say things about them to me," to which Zhou replied "I do not want to talk about it this time. If there wasn't oil, neither Taiwan nor the United States would make this an issue." Just two months after taking office, Tanaka met Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong . During 1973 and 1974, Tanaka visited

1034-490: A number of schools with the goal of entering Naval Academy , but he later decided to go into the construction industry instead. After finishing engineering school in 1936 he found employment as an engineer at a architectural firm. In 1937, while running errands for the firm, Tanaka had a chance meeting with the Viscount Masatoshi Ōkōchi in an elevator. Ōkōchi, apparently impressed with Tanaka's energy and ambition, helped

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1128-481: A previous marriage. They soon had two children of their own: a son named Masanori in 1942, who died young in 1947, and a daughter named Makiko in 1944. The marriage allowed Tanaka to take control of Sakamoto Construction, which he merged with his own business to form the Tanaka Construction Company in 1943. Tanaka revived his relationship with Riken, serving regularly as a subcontractor. In the midst of

1222-491: A public inquiry in the Diet (among other things, Tanaka had purchased a geisha and used her name for a number of shady land deals in Tokyo during the mid-sixties). The Diet commission called Etsuzankai's treasurer, Aki Sato , as its first witness. Unknown to the committee members, Sato and Tanaka had been involved in a romantic relationship for several years, and Tanaka took pity on Sato's troubled upbringing. Rather than let her take

1316-519: A stroke on 27 February and became hospitalized, sparking uncertainty over the future of his faction. His daughter Makiko spirited him from the hospital after authorities refused to give the former prime minister an entire floor, and the Diet session halted entirely while details of Tanaka's condition leaked out to the press. Susumu Nikaido , the titular chairman of Tanaka's faction, mounted a campaign against Takeshita to attempt to win over members of Tanaka's faction amid uncertainty as to his condition, which

1410-598: Is 'Prime Minister'. This English translation was informally used as the English translation of 'Grand Minister' before the introduction of the cabinet system. However, this was not the original English translation of 'Prime Minister', and a German translation, ' Minister President of the State' , was also used in the past. Before the adoption of the Meiji Constitution , Japan had in practice no written constitution . Originally,

1504-659: Is almost entirely funded by the Japanese government , with an annual budget of ¥100 billion (US$ 750 million) in FY2023. "Riken" is an acronym of the formal name Rikagaku Kenkyūsho ( 理化学研究所 ) , and its full name in Japanese is Kokuritsu Kenkyū Kaihatsu Hōjin Rikagaku Kenkyūsho ( 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所 ) and in English is the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research . In 1913, the well-known scientist Jokichi Takamine first proposed

1598-498: Is nominated by both houses of the Diet , before the conduct of any other business. For that purpose, each conducts a ballot under the run-off system. If the two houses choose different individuals, then a joint committee of both houses is appointed to agree on a common nominee. Ultimately, however, if the two houses do not agree, the decision of the House of Representatives is deemed to be that of

1692-512: Is normalizing Japanese relations with the People's Republic of China , which occurred around the same time as Richard Nixon 's efforts to do the same for Chinese relations with the United States. In 1972, Tanaka met with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai to discuss the normalization of relations between the two countries . Among other matters, they discussed the Senkaku Islands , which would later become

1786-635: Is now Ricoh . During World War II , the Japanese army's atomic bomb program was conducted at Riken. In April 1945 the US bombed Riken's laboratories in Komagome, and in November, after the end of the war, Allied soldiers destroyed its two cyclotrons . After the war, the Allies dissolved Riken as a private foundation, and it was brought back to life as a company called Kagaku Kenkyūsho ( 科学研究所 ) , or Kaken ( 科研 ) . In 1958

1880-479: Is still publicly funded, and it is periodically evaluated by the government, but it has a higher degree of autonomy than before. Riken is regarded as the flagship research institute in Japan and conducts basic and applied experimental research in a wide range of science and technology fields including physics, chemistry, medical science, biology and engineering. Riken was the subject of international attention in 2014 after

1974-618: Is the head of government of Japan . The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its ministers of state. The prime minister also serves as the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self Defence Forces and is a sitting member of either house of the National Diet (typically the House of Representatives ). The emperor appoints as prime minister

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2068-441: The 1973 oil crisis . In October 1974, the popular Bungeishunjū magazine published an article detailing how businesspeople close to Tanaka had profited by setting up paper companies to purchase land in remote areas immediately prior to the announcement of public works projects nearby. Although this implied a degree of corruption, none of the activity detailed was actually illegal. The article inspired Tanaka's LDP rivals to open

2162-802: The Buddhist family altar . The former LDP Secretary General and future prime minister Shigeru Ishiba , one of Tanaka's proteges, commented: “The residence represented the pinnacle of Tanaka’s power. Another such place will never emerge. The symbol of that time has disappeared.” Prime Minister of Japan Naruhito [REDACTED] Fumihito [REDACTED] Shigeru Ishiba ( LDP ) Second Ishiba Cabinet ( LDP – Komeito coalition ) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Fukushiro Nukaga Kōichirō Genba [REDACTED] Masakazu Sekiguchi Hiroyuki Nagahama Saburo Tokura Kazuo Ueda The prime minister of Japan ( Japanese : 内閣総理大臣 , Hepburn : Naikaku Sōri-Daijin )

2256-451: The DPJ -led cabinets, Kan and Noda Cabinets after the 2010 upper house election ; cf. Nejire Kokkai /"twisted Diets"). Unlike most of his counterparts in constitutional monarchies, the prime minister is both de jure and de facto chief executive. In most other constitutional monarchies, the monarch is at least nominal chief executive, while being bound by convention to act on the advice of

2350-530: The Hata Cabinet in 1994 and at least numerically the Second Hashimoto Cabinet of 1996 during its first year, but with an extra-cabinet cooperation (閣外協力, kakugai kyōryoku ) agreement with two parties, sufficient to ensure safe majorities for most government initiatives), and several cabinets with a majority in the House of Representatives, but without legislative majority of their own (most recently

2444-570: The Heian period and until briefly under the Meiji Constitution with the appointment of Sanjō Sanetomi in 1871. The office was replaced in 1885 with the appointment of Itō Hirobumi to the new position of Minister President of State, four years before the enactment of the Meiji Constitution, which mentions neither the Cabinet nor the position of Prime Minister explicitly. It took its current form with

2538-506: The Kariwa District of Niigata Prefecture , now part of Kashiwazaki . He was born to a farming family, the second son of Kakuji Tanaka and his wife Fume. His older brother had died young so Tanaka was treated as the eldest son. He otherwise had six sisters, two elder and four younger. Niigata Prefecture was part of what was called ura Nippon : the ”back of Japan” facing the Sea of Japan , which

2632-609: The People's Republic of China . Although he had entered office with a very high popularity rating, this declined quickly amid allegations of corruption before his resignation in 1974. In 1976, Tanaka was arrested and charged with taking ¥500 million in bribes in the Lockheed scandal , and in 1983 was sentenced to four years in prison. However, Tanaka remained free on appeal to the Supreme Court until his death in 1993. Throughout his legal problems, he maintained influence through his faction,

2726-759: The Prime Minister's Trophy on behalf of the Japan Professional Sports Association and the Monodzukuri Nippon award on behalf of the Japanese Manufacturing Association. Riken Riken conducts research in various fields of science, including physics , chemistry , biology , genomics , medical science , engineering , high-performance computing and computational science , and ranging from basic research to practical applications with 485 partners worldwide. It

2820-501: The emperor at the Tokyo Imperial Palace . Conventionally, the prime minister is almost always the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives, or the leader of the senior partner in the governing coalition. But there have been three cabinet prime ministers from junior coalition partners ( Hitoshi Ashida : 1948, Morihiro Hosokawa : 1993 and Tomiichi Murayama : 1994), a few minority governments (most recently

2914-670: The imperial family in the Heian period , or by the ruling shōgun . Theoretically, the last ritsuryō code, the Yōrō Code enacted in 752, was still in force at the time of the Meiji Restoration . Under this system, the Daijō-daijin ( 太政大臣 , Chancellor of the Realm) was the head of the Daijō-kan (Department of State), the highest organ of Japan's pre-modern Imperial government during

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3008-554: The 1949 general election, and was released from prison in January after securing bail . He was re-elected, and made a deal with Chief Cabinet Secretary Eisaku Satō to resign his vice-ministerial post in exchange for continued membership in the DLP. The Tokyo District Court found Tanaka guilty in 1950, and Tanaka responded by filing an appeal. In the meantime, he took over the failing Nagaoka Railway that linked Niigata to Tokyo, and through

3102-475: The 1976 " Lockheed Election ". The two old rivals did not cooperate for long, however: in 1978, Tanaka threw his faction behind Ohira's. After Ohira died in 1980, the Tanaka faction elected Zenkō Suzuki . In 1982, Yasuhiro Nakasone was elected president of the LDP (and therefore as prime minister) amid allegations from opponents that he would be under Tanaka's control. The Lockheed trial ended on 12 October 1983. Tanaka

3196-488: The 1990s and 2000s than it did under Tanaka and Takeshita in the 1980s, as electoral reforms enacted in 1994, coupled with new campaign finance regulations and the ongoing economic slump that followed the Japanese asset price bubble , weakened the power of factions in Japanese politics. Tanaka built his faction largely by recruiting and supporting new candidates. This technique was used to some success by two prominent politicians decades later: Junichiro Koizumi , who recruited

3290-424: The 300,000–400,000 range, and linking these cities to Tokyo, Osaka and other cores by high-speed rail, a revolutionary view at a time when only one Shinkansen line existed. Tanaka's government expanded the welfare state through measures such as the doubling of national pension benefits, the introduction of free medical care for the elderly, the provision of child allowances in 1972, and the indexation of pensions to

3384-473: The American diplomatic corps that he was said to have played a larger role in the repatriation of Okinawa than Satō himself. In June 1972, he published his book, "A Plan for Remodeling the Japanese Archipelago." He made a de facto government pledge with the purpose of "promoting regional decentralization". This book initially sold 910,000 copies, partly because Tanaka later took the position of prime minister, and

3478-675: The DPJ presidency. Makiko Tanaka , who was not associated with Etsuzankai, was elected to her father's old seat in Niigata in the 1993 election and became foreign minister in the Koizumi cabinet in 2001. Due in part to her father's historical role in Sino-Japanese relations , she became popular in the People's Republic of China and publicly opposed several anti-PRC actions by Japan and the United States, including Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine . She left

3572-571: The Diet and Imperial Palace. This practice made Etsuzankai the most tightly knit political organization in Japanese history, and it also furthered Tanaka's increasingly gangster-like image. Tanaka became a member of the Liberal Democratic Party when it formed in November 1955, from the merger of the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party . In November 1956 there was a party leadership race to succeed Ichirō Hatoyama . A split occurred in

3666-682: The Diet passed the Riken Law, whereby the institute returned to its original name and entered its third incarnation, as a public corporation ( 特殊法人 , tokushu hōjin ) , funded by the government. In 1963 it relocated to a large site in modern day Wakō then until 1970 in Saitama Prefecture , just outside Tokyo . Since the 1980s Riken has expanded dramatically. New labs, centers, and institutes have been established in Japan and overseas, including: In October 2003, Riken's status changed again, to Independent Administrative Institution . As such, Riken

3760-404: The Diet. If the House of Councillors does not make a nomination within 10 days of the House of Representatives' nomination, the House of Representatives' nomination becomes the Diet's decision. Therefore, the House of Representatives can theoretically ensure the appointment of any prime minister it wants. The nominee is then presented with his or her commission, and formally appointed to office by

3854-678: The Doshi Club defected to the new Democratic Liberal Party , and Tanaka instantly won favor with the DLP's leader, Shigeru Yoshida . Yoshida appointed Tanaka as a Vice Minister of Justice, the youngest in the nation's history. Then, on 13 December, Tanaka was arrested and imprisoned on charges of accepting ¥1m (US$ 13,000) in bribes from coal mining interests in Kyūshū . Yoshida and the DLP dropped most of their ties with Tanaka, removed him from his official party posts, and refused to fund his next re-election bid. Despite this, Tanaka announced his candidacy for

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3948-564: The Japanese government maintains two Boeing 777 , which replaced the Boeing 747-400 also in 2019. The aircraft is also used by the emperor , the members of the imperial family, and other high-ranking officials. They have the radio callsigns Japanese Air Force One and Japanese Air Force Two when operating on official business, and Cygnus One and Cygnus Two when operating outside of official business (e.g., on training flights). The aircraft always fly together on government missions, with one serving as

4042-517: The Komagome district of Tokyo , and its first director was the mathematician Baron Dairoku Kikuchi . In 1927, Viscount Masatoshi Ōkōchi , the third director, established the Riken Concern (a zaibatsu ). This was a group of spin-off companies that used Riken's scientific achievements for commercial ends and returned the profits to Riken. At its peak in 1939 the zaibatsu comprised about 121 factories and 63 companies, including Riken Kankōshi, which

4136-533: The LDP in 2002 and subsequently became a minister in the last days of Democratic Party of Japan government in 2012. She lost her seat in the December 2012 general election , by which point Etsuzankai had disbanded with only a few elderly surviving members. In January 2024, the Mejiro Goten , Tanaka's former Tokyo residence, burned down. Makiko Tanaka ascribed the fire to an incense stick that had not been extinguished in

4230-606: The LDP leadership election in November 1987 and served as prime minister until resigning amid the Recruit scandal in June 1989. While his appeal lingered in the Court's docket, Tanaka's medical condition deteriorated. He announced his retirement from politics in October 1989, at the age of 71, in an announcement made by his son-in-law Naoki Tanaka . The announcement ended his 42-year career in politics;

4324-595: The Pacific War, Riken and Tanaka Construction received many government contracts for military facilities and factories. Luck favored Tanaka in the endgame of the war. Tanaka received a particularly profitable contract to relocate a piston ring factory from Tokyo to Daejeon in Korea . The rebuilding in Korea had just begun by the time it was abandoned due to the surrender of Japan , but Tanaka had been able to go to cash in his advance on

4418-785: The United States, France, Britain, West Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. He appeared on the US television program Meet the Press to have a direct dialogue with Americans during his visit to the US in July/August 1973. His visit to Europe was the first visit by a Japanese prime minister since 1962, and his visit to the USSR was the first since 1956. His state visit to Indonesia as invited by President Soeharto to discuss Indo-Japanese trade relations

4512-409: The United States, based on the fact that the scandal originated with congressional testimony in the US. Tanaka's trial did not end his political influence. His faction had 70 to 80 members prior to his arrest in 1976, but grew to over 150 members by 1981, more than one-third of the total LDP representation in the Diet. In retaliation for Miki's actions, Tanaka persuaded his faction to vote for Fukuda in

4606-673: The Yoshida school between the factions of Eisaku Sato and Hayato Ikeda; Sato supported his brother Nobusuke Kishi and Ikeda supported Mitsujirō Ishii . Tanaka followed Sato rather than Ikeda, even though Tanaka’s stepdaughter married a nephew of Ikeda that same month. Nevertheless, Tanaka maintained close ties with the Ikeda and befriended his right-hand man Masayoshi Ōhira . Nobusuke Kishi narrowly lost to Tanzan Ishibashi , but Ishibashi soon fell ill, so Kishi succeeded him in March 1957. When Kishi reshuffled

4700-554: The adoption of the Constitution of Japan in 1947. To date, sixty-five men have served this position. The longest-serving prime minister to date is Shinzo Abe , who served in non-consecutive two terms for 8 years, 267 days: from 26 September 2006 until 26 September 2007, and from 26 December 2012 until 16 September 2020. The shortest-serving prime minister to date is Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni , who served for fifty-four days: from 17 August until 9 October 1945. The prime minister

4794-636: The bounds of cabinet collective responsibility , the Japanese Cabinet is effectively an extension of the prime minister's authority. Located near the Diet building, the Office of the Prime Minister of Japan is called the Naikaku Sōri Daijin Kantei ( 内閣総理大臣官邸 ) . The original Kantei served from 1929 until 2002, when a new building was inaugurated to serve as the current Kantei. The old Kantei

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4888-453: The cabinet in July, Tanaka received his first cabinet post, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications . In this role, he granted the first television broadcasting licenses in Japan. Tanaka was a friend of the commissioned postal system, by which local notables were commissioned by the state to serve as local postmasters. Under his tenure, Tanaka forged a strong relationship between the postmasters and

4982-465: The cabinet. In contrast, the Constitution of Japan explicitly vests executive power in the Cabinet, of which the prime minister is the leader; this greatly enhances the prime minister's position compared to prime ministers in other parliamentary democracies. His countersignature is required for all laws and Cabinet orders. While most ministers in parliamentary democracies have some freedom of action within

5076-624: The contract, ¥15 million in Japanese war bonds, at a bank in Seoul before it became worthless. In addition, none of his major buildings were damaged in the firebombing of Tokyo. In November 1945, Tanaka met with Tadao Oasa  [ ja ] , a veteran politician who served as adviser to the Tanaka Construction Company. Oasa was in the middle of forming the Japan Progressive Party (日本進歩党, Nihon Shinpoto ) and asked Tanaka to contribute money, which he happily did. Oasa later recruited Tanaka as

5170-421: The current unusual parliamentary situation, there is a need for refreshing the people's minds as quickly as possible." In the " Second Lockheed Election " of December 1983, Tanaka retained his Diet seat by an unprecedented margin, winning more votes than any other candidate in the country. The LDP performed poorly, and Prime Minister Nakasone publicly vowed to distance the party from Tanaka's politics, stating that

5264-414: The end. Tanaka's most important support base, however, was a group called Etsuzankai (越山会, literally "Niigata Mountain Association"). Etsuzankai's function was to screen various petitions from villagers in rural parts of Niigata. Tanaka would answer these petitions with government-funded pork barrel projects. In turn, the local villagers all financially supported Etsuzankai, which, in its turn, funded

5358-409: The establishment of a national science research institute in Japan. This task was taken on by Viscount Shibusawa Eiichi , a prominent businessman, and following a resolution by the Diet in 1915, Riken came into existence in March 1917. In its first incarnation, Riken was a private foundation ( zaidan ), funded by a combination of industry, the government, and the Imperial Household . It was located in

5452-437: The faction of Eisaku Sato. After the resignation of Nobusuke Kishi, Tanaka supported Hayato Ikeda as his successor. Under Ikeda, Tanaka became chairman of the Policy Affairs Research Council, and eventually Minister of Finance . Tanaka's term as minister of finance saw some of the highest economic growth in Japanese history. Satō succeeded Ikeda in 1964. When Satō reshuffled the cabinet and party leadership in June 1965 Tanaka

5546-427: The faction until refusing to stand in the 2005 general election due to a fundraising scandal, and died shortly thereafter. The remnants of the faction, formally known by this time as Heisei Kenkyūkai (Heisei Research Council), remained active under the leadership of Yūji Tsushima , who resigned prior to the 2009 general election , passing control to Fukushiro Nukaga . The faction raised much less in donations during

5640-407: The family fell into poverty. This was exacerbated by Kakuji’s gambling and drinking. To support the family, Tanaka’s mother worked in the fields even after everyone else went to sleep, so Tanaka was often taken care of by his grandmother. Tanaka contracted diphtheria at the age of two and the aftereffects caused him to stutter , but he lost it by practicing his speech by himself for long periods as

5734-431: The first of whom was Itō Hirobumi taking office on 22 December 1885. The longest-serving prime minister was Shinzo Abe , who served over eight years, and the shortest-serving was Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni , who served fifty-four days. The current prime minister is Shigeru Ishiba , who succeeded Fumio Kishida on 1 October 2024, following the 2024 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election . In Japanese, due to

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5828-422: The largest faction in the LDP, and continued to serve as kingmaker for subsequent premiers, which earned him the nickname "Shadow Shōgun " ( 闇将軍 , Yami-shōgun ) , among others. A debilitating stroke he suffered in 1985 led to the collapse of his political faction, with most members regrouping under the leadership of Noboru Takeshita in 1987. Kakuei Tanaka was born on 4 May 1918, in the village of Futada in

5922-487: The national security leadership. The incident henceforth became well known as the Malari Incident ( Peristiwa Malari ). Upon taking office in 1972, Tanaka published an ambitious infrastructure plan for Japan which called for a new network of expressways and high-speed rail lines throughout the country. It was a plan that Tanaka once wrote in his book "Theory of Remodeling the Japanese Islands". He envisioned moving more economic functions to secondary cities with populations in

6016-440: The notables supposed to support him ran as candidates themselves, as did the brother of the Riken Kashiwazaki factory manager, splitting Tanaka's support base. Tanaka only captured 4% of the vote, finishing in eleventh place whereas the district was filling eight seats. Tanaka was better prepared for the next election, which came in April 1947 . He had set up Tanaka Construction branch offices in Kashiwazaki and Nagaoka , employing

6110-406: The part of the prime minister (for example, Kiichi Miyazawa ). The Prime Minister also awards individuals in recognition of their accomplishments in sport, entertainment, and other fields. Some of the awards and commendations offered include the Prime Minister's Award, created by Eisaku Satō in 1966, and the People's Honour Award , created by Takeo Fukuda in 1977. Additionally, the PM also presents

6204-400: The party should be "cleansed" with a new code of ethics. Nakasone placed six members of the Tanaka faction on his 1984 cabinet, including future prime minister Noboru Takeshita . Amid Tanaka's objections, Noboru Takeshita formed a "study group" called Soseikai on 7 February 1985, which counted among its ranks 43 of the 121 Tanaka faction members. Weeks after this defection, Tanaka suffered

6298-400: The person who is nominated by the National Diet (the parliament). The prime minister must retain the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. The prime minister lives and works at the Naikaku Sōri Daijin Kantei (Prime Minister's Official Residence) in Nagatachō , Chiyoda , Tokyo , close to the National Diet Building . Sixty-five men have served as prime minister,

6392-427: The primary transport and the other serving as a backup with maintenance personnel on board. The aircraft are officially referred to as Japanese government exclusive aircraft ( 日本国政府専用機 , Nippon-koku seifu sen'yōki ) . Until the mid-1930s, the prime minister of Japan was normally granted a hereditary peerage ( kazoku ) prior to leaving office if he had not already been ennobled. Titles were usually bestowed in

6486-418: The ranks of count , viscount or baron , depending on the relative accomplishments and status of the prime minister. The two highest ranks, marquess and prince , were only bestowed upon highly distinguished statesmen, and were not granted to a prime minister after 1928. The last prime minister who was a peer was Baron Kijūrō Shidehara , who served as Prime Minister from October 1945 to May 1946. The peerage

6580-422: The rate of inflation in 1973. In 1973, the Pollution Health Damage Compensation Law was passed with the purpose of paying victims of specific diseases in certain Government-designated localities compensation benefits and medical expenses, together with providing health and welfare services required by these families. The Japanese economy, and thus Tanaka's popularity, was severely hurt by the inflationary effects of

6674-472: The re-election campaigns of local Diet members, including Tanaka. At its peak, Etsuzankai had 100,000 members. The projects funded by Etsuzankai included the Tadami River hydroelectric power project, the New Shimizu Tunnel , and, perhaps most infamously, the Jōetsu Shinkansen high-speed rail line. During the 1950s, Tanaka brought Etsuzankai members to his residence in Tokyo by bus, met with each of them individually, and then provided them with tours of

6768-485: The remnants of his faction, now led by former Prime Minister Takeshita, remained the most powerful bloc within the LDP at the time of his retirement. In 1993, a number of members of his faction broke away from the LDP to form part of an Eight-party Alliance government under Morihiro Hosokawa . Tanaka was later diagnosed with diabetes , and died of pneumonia at Keio University Hospital at 2:04 p.m. on 16 December 1993. Following his death, his home in northern Tokyo

6862-760: The senior second rank posthumously. Certain distinguished prime ministers have been posthumously raised to the first rank; the last such award was to Eisaku Sato in 1975. Since the 1920s, following their tenure in office, Prime ministers have typically been conferred with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers (until 2003 a special higher class of the Order of the Rising Sun), depending on tenure and eminence. However, honours may be withheld due to misconduct or refusal on

6956-506: The special nature of the work of the head of government, the prime minister's titles vary depending on context, sometimes demonstrating his/her role. Since the inception of the cabinet system , the prime minister is known in Japanese as Naikaku Sōri-Daijin (内閣総理大臣) whenever he is referred to as the head of the Cabinet. However, this title is usually abbreviated to Sōri-Daijin (総理大臣). Other abbreviations include Sōri (総理), Shushō (首相) or even Saishō (宰相). The official English rendering

7050-522: The stand, he announced his resignation on 26 November 1974. The announcement was read by Chief Cabinet Secretary Noboru Takeshita . The Tanaka faction supported Takeo Miki 's "clean government" bid to become prime minister, and Tanaka once again became a rank-and-file Diet member. On 6 February 1976, the vice chairman of the Lockheed Corporation told a United States Senate subcommittee that Tanaka had accepted $ 1.8 million in bribes through

7144-463: The trading company Marubeni during his term as prime minister, in return for having All Nippon Airways purchase 21 Lockheed L-1011 aircraft in 1972. Although Henry Kissinger tried to stop the details from making their way to the Japanese government, fearing that it would harm the two countries' security relationship, Miki pushed a bill through the Diet that requested information from the Senate. Tanaka

7238-662: The two battling heirs of the Satō administration, and their rivalry was dubbed by the Japanese press as the "Kaku-Fuku War." Tanaka made a record showing in the 1967 general election, and Satō re-appointed him as secretary general in November 1968, moving Fukuda to the post of finance minister. In 1971, Satō gave Tanaka another important stepping stone to taking over the government: minister of international trade and industry . As head of MITI, Tanaka gained public support again by standing up to U.S. negotiators who wanted Japan to impose export caps on several products. He had so many contacts within

7332-456: The young LDP, and the postmasters would serve as important supporters for the party. Tanaka left cabinet in June 1958. He was appointed deputy secretary-general of the LDP in June 1959. Around this time, Tanaka came to be regarded as one of the "five commissioners of the Sato faction," along with Shigeru Hori , Kiichi Aichi , Tomisaburo Hashimoto and Raizo Matsuno : the principal executives who managed

7426-456: The young man start his own architectural firm in Tokyo. The fledgling firm was successful as it received contracts from the Riken Concern, but after only two years Tanaka was drafted into the army and sent to Manchuria , where he served as an enlisted clerk in the 24th Cavalry Regiment, reaching the rank of superior private ( jōtōhei ) in March 1940. He contracted pneumonia and pleurisy and

7520-585: Was "besieged" by supporters and journalists. Tanaka's faction remained within the Liberal Democratic Party even after his death. It split in 1992, after Noboru Takeshita was sidelined by the Recruit scandal , with Tsutomu Hata and Ichiro Ozawa leaving the LDP and forming the Japan Renewal Party . Keizo Obuchi inherited what was left of the Tanaka faction, supported the election of Ryutaro Hashimoto as prime minister, and himself became prime minister from 1999 to 2000. After Obuchi's death, Hashimoto led

7614-573: Was abolished when the Constitution of Japan came into effect in May 1947. Certain eminent prime ministers have been awarded the Order of the Chrysanthemum , typically in the degree of Grand Cordon. The highest honour in the Japanese honours system, the Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, has only been conferred upon select prime ministers and eminent statesmen; the last such award to a living prime minister

7708-691: Was appointed Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party . His tenure saw the emergence of a number of corruption scandals involving LDP Diet members, collectively known as the Black Mist Scandal. Although Tanaka himself was not implicated, Satō replaced him with Takeo Fukuda in December 1966. Tanaka was given a low-profile position as chairman of the LDP Urban Policy Research Commission. Fukuda and Tanaka soon became

7802-517: Was arrested on 27 July 1976, initially on charges of violating Japanese foreign exchange restrictions by not reporting the payment. He was released in August on a ¥200m (US$ 690,000) bond. Tanaka was located in the Tokyo Detention House . Many Tanaka supporters viewed the scandal as an effort by American multinational corporations to "get" Tanaka in response to his hard-line stance in trade talks with

7896-597: Was drafted into the army and served in Manchuria until 1941; during the Pacific War , he made a fortune from government contracts. After the war, Tanaka was first elected to the National Diet in 1947. He joined the Liberal Democratic Party on its foundation in 1955, and held a series of cabinet positions, including posts and telecommunications minister from 1957 to 1958, finance minister from 1962 to 1965, and international trade and industry minister from 1971 to 1972. He built up

7990-437: Was found guilty and sentenced to 4 years in jail and a 500 million yen fine. Rather than cave in, he filed an appeal and announced that he would not leave the Diet as long as his constituents supported him. This sparked a month-long war in the Diet over whether or not to censure Tanaka; eventually, Prime Minister Nakasone, himself elected by Tanaka's faction, dissolved the Diet and called for a new election, stating that "in view of

8084-690: Was impoverished and neglected in comparison to omote Nippon , ”the front of Japan” facing the Pacific Ocean . Furthermore, Niigata was in the snow country of Japan, where heavy snows made conditions difficult. Although they were a farming family, Tanaka’s grandfather Sutekichi had also been a respected shrine carpenter and Tanaka’s father Kakuji worked as a horse and cattle trader. At the time of Tanaka’s birth they were considered relatively well-off in Futada, but when business ventures undertaken by Kakuji: importing Holstein cattle and koi farming; ended up failing

8178-414: Was only known to Tanaka's family and doctors. The division in the Tanaka faction was a boon for smaller LDP faction leaders, particularly Prime Minister Nakasone who no longer had to worry about a single dominant force within the LDP. Public chiding of Tanaka continued during 1985, including Sega 's publication of an arcade game titled Gombe's I'm Sorry ( ごんべえのあいむそ〜り〜 , Gonbē no Aimusōrī ) featuring

8272-624: Was paralyzed, and he was grossly overweight. The Tokyo High Court dismissed Tanaka's appeal on 29 July 1987, and the original sentence passed down in 1983 was reinstated. Tanaka immediately posted bail and appealed to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, despite Nikaido's efforts, by July 1987 the Takeshita faction counted 113 of the 143 Tanaka faction members, while only thirteen supported Nikaido. The Tanaka faction members who moved to Takeshita's faction included Ichirō Ozawa , Tsutomu Hata , Ryutaro Hashimoto , Keizō Obuchi and Kozo Watanabe . Takeshita won

8366-458: Was protested by a number of local anti-Japanese sentiments denying international investment, which occurred on 15 January 1974. Japanese-manufactured material and buildings were destroyed by Indonesian protesters. 11 people were dead, a further 300 were injured, and 775 protesters were arrested. As a result, the Soeharto regime dissolved the president's private counselor constitution and took control of

8460-451: Was ranked fourth in the year. It became a best seller. Although Satō wanted Fukuda to become the next prime minister, Tanaka's popularity, along with support from the factions of Yasuhiro Nakasone and Masayoshi Ōhira , gave him a 282–190 victory over Fukuda in the LDP's 1971 party president election. He entered the office with the highest popularity rating of any new premier in Japanese history. One of Tanaka's most remembered achievements

8554-533: Was sent to military hospital in Japan in February 1941; he was discharged in October 1941. After recovering, Tanaka found office space at the Sakamoto Construction Company and restarted his business. His landlady, the late company president's widow, was trying to find a match for her daughter, Hana Sakamoto, so Tanaka married Hana in March 1942. She was seven years Tanaka’s senior and had a daughter from

8648-513: Was then converted into the Official Residence, or Kōtei ( 公邸 ) . The Kōtei lies to the southwest of the Kantei, and is linked by a walkway. The prime minister of Japan travels in a Toyota Century . The Lexus LS 600h L , which served as the prime minister's official car from 2008 to 2019, became a spare/alternative vehicle used by the Prime Minister till present. For overseas air travel,

8742-403: Was to Saionji Kinmochi in 1928. More often, the Order of the Chrysanthemum has been a posthumous distinction; both the Collar and Grand Cordon of the order were last awarded posthumously to former prime minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022. After relinquishing office, the prime minister is normally accorded the second or senior third rank in the court order of precedence, and is usually raised to

8836-433: Was unable to meet with Ōkōchi. Instead he found work as an apprentice at a construction company while he began attending engineering school part-time in the evenings. He ended up quitting his job after a dispute with his foreman, later working briefly for an insurance industry magazine and a trading company. In 1935 the fortunes of Tanaka's father turned, so Tanaka was able to spend more time on his education. He took courses at

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