was a Japanese
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
who served in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
from
1947
It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Events
January
* January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...
to
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
, and was
Prime Minister of Japan
The prime minister of Japan (Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') 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 Stat ...
from 1972 to 1974.
After a power struggle with
Takeo Fukuda
was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1976 to 1978.
Early life and education
Fukuda was born in Gunma, capital of the Gunma Prefecture on 14 January 1905. He hailed from a former samurai family and his father was mayor ...
, he became the most influential member of the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party from the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s. He was a central figure in several political scandals, culminating in the
Lockheed bribery scandals
The Lockheed bribery scandals encompassed a series of bribes and contributions made by officials of U.S. aerospace company Lockheed from the late 1950s to the 1970s in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft.
The scandal caused consid ...
of 1976 which led to his arrest and trial; he was found guilty by two lower courts, but his case remained open before the Supreme Court through his death. The scandals, coupled with 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
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1987 to 1989 during the bubble economy.
Takeshita led the largest faction at the time in the Liberal Democratic Party, which he inherited from Kakuei Tanaka, from the 1980s u ...
in 1987.
He was nicknamed Kaku-san
[The World: Tanaka: Prisoner of 'Money Power']
" ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
''. Monday 9 August 1976. Retrieved on 29 August 2010. and was known as the .
(The title of "Shadow ''
Shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...
''" has since been used to describe
Ichirō Ozawa
is a Japanese politician and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1969, representing the Iwate 3rd district (Iwate 2nd district prior to the 1996 general election and Iwate 4th district prior to the 2017 general election). H ...
.) His political-economic direction is called the . He was strongly identified with the construction industry but never served as construction minister.
His daughter
Makiko Tanaka
is a Japanese politician. She is the daughter of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and his official wife Hana.
Early life
Tanaka attended high school at Germantown Friends School in the United States and graduated from Waseda University. She s ...
and son-in-law
Naoki Tanaka remain active political figures in Japan.
Early life and education
Tanaka was born on 4 May 1918, in Futamura,
Niigata Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...
(present-day
Kashiwazaki, Niigata
is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 81,836 in 34,883 households, and a population density of 187 persons per km². The total area of the city was .
Geography
Kashiwazaki is located in a co ...
), the second son of farmer Kakuji Tanaka and his wife Fume. He had seven siblings (an elder brother, two elder sisters and four younger sisters) but was the only son who survived into adulthood. Although a farming family, his father was a cow and horse trader and his grandfather Sutekichi Tanaka had worked as a temple and shrine carpenter. His mother worked even after everyone else went to sleep and was attached to her grandmother. When Tanaka was young, his father was involved with a series of financially disastrous ventures in
koi
or more specifically , are colored varieties of the Amur carp ('' Cyprinus rubrofuscus'') that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens.
Koi is an informal name for the colored variants of ''C. rubrofuscus'' ke ...
farming, importing cattle
and starting Niigata's first
dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...
farm,
which caused the family to fall into extreme poverty. Tanaka contracted
diphtheria
Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...
at a young age and the aftereffect caused him to
stutter
Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...
.
Kakuei left school at the age of fifteen and worked construction jobs while studying part-time at night.
In 1937, while running errands for a construction firm, Tanaka ran into an elevator occupied by the
Viscount
A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status.
In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...
Masatoshi Ōkōchi
Viscount was a Japanese physicist and business executive. He was the third director of the Riken Institute, a position which he assumed in 1921 and held for 25 years. During this period, he was notable for establishing the ''Riken Konzern'', ...
, head of the
Riken corporation. Ōkōchi, apparently impressed with Tanaka's energy and ambition, agreed to help the young man start a drafting office in Tokyo. Japan did not have a state qualification for architects at the time; Tanaka would have a role in creating the licensing system for architects later in his career.
The drafting office only kept Tanaka busy for two years: he was drafted into the army in 1939 and sent to
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...
, where he served as an enlisted clerk in the
Morioka Cavalry, reaching the rank of superior private (''jōtōhei'') in March 1940. After two years in the military, he contracted
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
in February 1941 and was returned to Tokyo to recover; he never re-enlisted, leaving the army in October.
Back in Japan, Tanaka ended up at the Sakamoto Civil Engineering firm, looking for office space to restart his drafting business. There, he met the late company president's widow, who not only gave him the real estate he needed, but also asked him to marry her daughter,
Sakamoto Hana. Tanaka accepted, and married his way into the upper class.
Rise into politics
In 1942, Tanaka took over the Sakamoto company and renamed it
Tanaka Civil Engineering and Construction Industries. He soon had two children: a son named Masanori Tanaka in 1942 (died 1948), and a daughter named
Makiko Tanaka
is a Japanese politician. She is the daughter of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and his official wife Hana.
Early life
Tanaka attended high school at Germantown Friends School in the United States and graduated from Waseda University. She s ...
in 1944.
Luck favored Tanaka during the endgame of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. None of his major buildings were damaged in the
firebombing of Tokyo
The was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9–10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bombing ...
, and just weeks before the Japanese surrender, he travelled to
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
and cashed in ¥15b (about US$78m) in Japanese
war bond
War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...
s. In December 1945, as the first postwar
Diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
was being planned by the American occupation authorities, Tanaka was able to give generous donations to an associate affiliated with the
Japan Moderate Progressive Party (''Nihon Shinpoto'').
In 1946, he moved from Tokyo to Niigata to prepare his first bid for a Diet seat: he worked around the election laws of the time by buying buildings throughout the district and placing large "TANAKA" signs on them. However, his bid unraveled at the last minute when three other JMPP candidates entered the race. Tanaka only captured 4% of the vote in the general election.
In 1947, however, he placed third in his district after a strategy targeting rural voters. He took his Diet seat that year as a member of the new
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
(''Minshuto''). In the Diet, he became friends with former prime minister
Kijūrō Shidehara
Baron was a pre–World War II Japanese diplomat and politician. He was Prime Minister of Japan from 1945 to 1946 and a leading proponent of pacifism in Japan before and after World War II. He was the last Japanese Prime Minister who was a m ...
and joined Shidehara's
Dōshi Club. Then in 1948, the Doshi Club defected to the new
Democratic Liberal Party, and Tanaka instantly won favor with the DLP's leader,
Shigeru Yoshida
(22 September 1878 – 20 October 1967) was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1954. Yoshida was one of the longest-serving Japanese prime ministers, and is the third-long ...
. 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
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...
. 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 the 1949 general election, and was released from prison in January after securing
bail
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required.
In some countries ...
. He was re-elected, and made a deal with
Chief Cabinet Secretary
The is a member of the cabinet and is the leader and chief executive of the Cabinet Secretariat of Japan. The Chief Cabinet Secretary coordinates the policies of ministries and agencies in the executive branch, and also serves as the government ...
Eisaku Satō
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1972. He is the third-longest serving Prime Minister, and ranks second in longest uninterrupted service as Prime Minister.
Satō entered the National Diet in 1949 as a membe ...
to resign his vice-ministerial post in exchange for continued membership in the DLP.
The
Tokyo District Court
is a district court located at 1-1-4 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.Supreme Court of Japan websit東京地方裁判所の紹介Retrieved on August 7, 2011
See also
*Judicial system of Japan
The judiciary (also known as the judicial sys ...
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 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
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
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 Kenji may refer to:
*Kenji (given name), a masculine Japanese given name, and list of people & characters with this name
*Kenji (era), a Japanese era spanned from 1275 to 1278
* ''Kenji'' (manga) (拳児), a 1980s manga by Matsuda Ryuchi
* "Kenji" ...
, who would remain one of Tanaka's most loyal supporters to the end.
Etsuzankai
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
''Pork barrel'', or simply ''pork'', is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district.
The usage originated in American English, and i ...
projects. In turn, the local villagers all financially supported Etsuzankai, which, in its turn, funded 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
The is a major tributary of the Agano River in Japan. Its basin covers and its main stem is extensively regulated and developed for hydroelectric power. The river is located within Niigata, Gunma and Fukushima Prefectures.
Dams
Starting from t ...
hydroelectric power
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
project, the
New Shimizu Tunnel, and, perhaps most infamously, the
Jōetsu Shinkansen
The is a high-speed shinkansen railway line connecting Tokyo and Niigata, Japan, via the Tōhoku Shinkansen, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Despite its name, the line does not pass through the city of Joetsu or the hist ...
high-speed rail
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
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 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.
Consolidation of power
Tanaka became a member of the
Liberal Democratic Party in 1955, when it absorbed the DLP.
When
Nobusuke Kishi
was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960.
Known for his exploitative rule of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China in the 1930s, Kishi was nicknamed the "Monster of the Shō ...
became prime minister in 1957, Tanaka was given his first cabinet post,
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. In this role, he granted the first television broadcasting licenses in Japan.
He already carried great influence in the LDP, despite his lack of seniority: this was partly because of his friendship with future prime minister Eisaku Satō, and partly because his stepdaughter had married future prime minister
Hayato Ikeda
was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's GDP in ten years.
Ikeda is also known for repairing U.S.-J ...
's nephew, giving him a personal relationship with both key heads of the party.
Under Ikeda's cabinet, Tanaka became chairman of the
Policy Affairs Research Council, and eventually
Minister of Finance
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
. Tanaka's term as minister of finance saw some of the highest economic growth in Japanese history.
When Satō became prime minister in 1965, Tanaka was slated to become the LDP's new
secretary general
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
, but the emergence of the
Black Mist Scandal, where Tanaka was accused of shady land deals in Tokyo, meant that
Takeo Fukuda
was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1976 to 1978.
Early life and education
Fukuda was born in Gunma, capital of the Gunma Prefecture on 14 January 1905. He hailed from a former samurai family and his father was mayor ...
got the job instead.
Fukuda and Tanaka soon became the two battling heir apparents of Satō's faction, and their rivalry was dubbed by the Japanese press as the "Kaku-Fuku War." Despite the scandal, Tanaka made a record showing in the 1967 general election, and Satō re-appointed him as secretary general, 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
The was a ministry of the Government of Japan from 1949 to 2001. The MITI was one of the most powerful government agencies in Japan and, at the height of its influence, effectively ran much of Japanese industrial policy, funding research and di ...
.
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 the American diplomatic corps that he was said to have played a larger role in the repatriation of
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
than Satō himself.
In June 1971, he published his book, "Theory of Remodeling the Japanese Islands." 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 was ranked fourth in the year. It became a best seller.
Prime minister
Although Satō wanted Fukuda to become the next prime minister, Tanaka's popularity, along with support from the factions of
Yasuhiro Nakasone
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 1982 to 1987. He was a member of the House of Representatives for more than 50 years. He was best known for pushing through the ...
and
Masayoshi Ōhira
was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1978 to 1980. Ōhira's time in office was cut short when he died in office; he remains the most recent Japanese Prime Minister to die in office.
Early life
Masayoshi Ōhira was bo ...
, 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.
Foreign policy
One of Tanaka's most remembered achievements is normalizing Japanese relations with the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, which occurred around the same time as
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
's efforts to do the same for Chinese relations with the United States.
In 1972, Tanaka met with Chinese premier
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 J ...
to discuss the
normalization of relations between the two countries. Among other matters, they discussed the
Senkaku Islands
The are a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan. They are located northeast of Taiwan, east of China, west of Okinawa Island, and north of the southwestern end of the Ryukyu Islands. They are known in main ...
, which would later become 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
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
chairman
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
.
During 1973 and 1974, Tanaka visited 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
''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...
'' 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
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
as invited by
President Soeharto to discuss Indo-Japanese trade relations 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 the national security leadership. The incident henceforth became well known as the
Malari Incident (''Peristiwa Malari'').
Economic policy
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 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
The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...
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 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 the
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
.
Resignation
In October 1974, the popular ''
Bungeishunjū
is a Japanese publishing company known for its leading monthly magazine ''Bungeishunjū''. The company was founded by Kan Kikuchi in 1923. It grants the annual Akutagawa Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in Japan, as well as th ...
'' 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 a public inquiry in the Diet (among other things, Tanaka had purchased a
geisha
{{Culture of Japan, Traditions, Geisha
{{nihongo, Geisha, 芸者 ({{IPAc-en, ˈ, ɡ, eɪ, ʃ, ə; {{IPA-ja, ɡeːɕa, lang), also known as {{nihongo, , 芸子, geiko (in Kyoto and Kanazawa) or {{nihongo, , 芸妓, geigi, are a class of female ...
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 the stand, he announced his resignation on 26 November 1974. The announcement was read by Chief Cabinet Secretary
Noboru Takeshita
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1987 to 1989 during the bubble economy.
Takeshita led the largest faction at the time in the Liberal Democratic Party, which he inherited from Kakuei Tanaka, from the 1980s u ...
.
The Tanaka faction supported
Takeo Miki
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1974 until 1976.
Early life and family
Takeo Miki was born on 17 March 1907, in Gosho, Tokushima Prefecture (present-day Awa, Tokushima), the only child of farmer-merchant H ...
's "clean government" bid to become prime minister, and Tanaka once again became a rank-and-file Diet member.
Lockheed scandal and aftermath
On 6 February 1976, the vice chairman of the
Lockheed Corporation
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but ot ...
told a
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
subcommittee that Tanaka had accepted $1.8 million in bribes through the trading company
Marubeni
(, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a ''sōgō shōsha'' (general trading company) headquartered in Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as well as a st ...
during his term as prime minister, in return for having
All Nippon Airways
, also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had mo ...
purchase 21
Lockheed L-1011
The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, also known as the L-1011 (pronounced "El-ten-eleven") and TriStar, is an American medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter comme ...
aircraft in 1972. Although
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
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 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
The is a correctional facility in Katsushika, Tokyo. The prison, which is operated by the Ministry of Justice, is one of seven detention centres that carry out executions in Japan. It is used to detain people awaiting trial, convicted felons and ...
.
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 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 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
was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1980 to 1982. He was the last prime minister to have been born in the Meiji era.
Early life and education
Suzuki was born on 11 January 1911, Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, the eldest s ...
. In 1982,
Yasuhiro Nakasone
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 1982 to 1987. He was a member of the House of Representatives for more than 50 years. He was best known for pushing through the ...
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 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 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 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
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1987 to 1989 during the bubble economy.
Takeshita led the largest faction at the time in the Liberal Democratic Party, which he inherited from Kakuei Tanaka, from the 1980s u ...
.
Defections to Takeshita faction
Amid Tanaka's objections,
Noboru Takeshita
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1987 to 1989 during the bubble economy.
Takeshita led the largest faction at the time in the Liberal Democratic Party, which he inherited from Kakuei Tanaka, from the 1980s u ...
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 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
Susumu is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Susumu Akagi (born 1972) Japanese voice actor
*Susumu Aoyagi (青柳 進, born 1968), Japanese baseball player
*Susumu Chiba (born 1970), Japanese voice actor
*, Ja ...
, 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 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
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
's
publication of an arcade game titled featuring 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 was paralyzed, and he was grossly overweight. The
Tokyo High Court
is a high court in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The is a special branch of Tokyo High Court.
Japan has eight high courts: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Sendai, Sapporo, and Takamatsu. Each court has jurisdiction over one of ...
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
is a Japanese politician and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1969, representing the Iwate 3rd district (Iwate 2nd district prior to the 1996 general election and Iwate 4th district prior to the 2017 general election). H ...
,
Tsutomu Hata
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan for nine weeks in 1994. He took over from Morihiro Hosokawa at the head of a coalition government. Shortly after he had been appointed Prime Minister, the Japanese Socialist Party le ...
,
Ryutaro Hashimoto
was a Japanese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 1996 to 1998. He was the leader of one of the largest factions within the ruling LDP through most of the 1990s and remained a powerful back-room player in Japanese politic ...
,
Keizō Obuchi
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1998 to 2000.
Obuchi was elected to the House of Representatives in Gunma Prefecture in 1963, becoming the youngest legislator in Japanese history, and was re-elected to his ...
and
Kozo Watanabe. Takeshita won the LDP leadership election in November 1987 and served as prime minister until resigning amid the
Recruit scandal
The was an insider trading and corruption scandal that forced many prominent Japanese politicians to resign in 1988.
Recruit is a human resources and classifieds company based in Tokyo. Its chairman, , offered a number of shares in a Recruit s ...
in June 1989.
Retirement and death
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; 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
is a Japanese politician and Nobility, noble who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994, leading a coalition government which was the first non-Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government of Japan since 1955 ...
.
Tanaka was later diagnosed with
diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
, and died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
at
Keio University
, mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword
, type = Private research coeducational higher education institution
, established = 1858
, founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa
, endowmen ...
Hospital at 2:04 p.m. on 16 December 1993. Following his death, his home in northern Tokyo was "besieged" by supporters and journalists.
Honours
Foreign honours
*:
**
Grand Collar of the
Order of Sikatuna
The Order of Sikatuna ( fil, Orden ng Sikatuna) is the national order of diplomatic merit of the Republic of the Philippines. It is conferred upon individuals who have rendered exceptional and meritorious services to the Republic of the Philipp ...
Legacy
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
The was an insider trading and corruption scandal that forced many prominent Japanese politicians to resign in 1988.
Recruit is a human resources and classifieds company based in Tokyo. Its chairman, , offered a number of shares in a Recruit s ...
, with
Tsutomu Hata
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan for nine weeks in 1994. He took over from Morihiro Hosokawa at the head of a coalition government. Shortly after he had been appointed Prime Minister, the Japanese Socialist Party le ...
and
Ichiro Ozawa leaving the LDP and forming the
Japan Renewal Party
The was a Japanese political party that existed in the early 1990s. It was founded in 1993 by 44 members of the Liberal Democratic Party led by Tsutomu Hata and Ichirō Ozawa. It was instrumental in ending the LDP's 38-year dominance of Japanese ...
.
Keizo Obuchi inherited what was left of the Tanaka faction, supported the election of
Ryutaro Hashimoto
was a Japanese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 1996 to 1998. He was the leader of one of the largest factions within the ruling LDP through most of the 1990s and remained a powerful back-room player in Japanese politic ...
as prime minister, and himself became prime minister from 1999 to 2000. After Obuchi's death, Hashimoto led 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
is a Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.
He was born in Tokyo Prefecture as Yuji Shima and adopted his mother's family name at age 3, ...
, who resigned prior to the
2009 general election, passing control to
Fukushiro Nukaga
is a Japanese politician and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1983 and represents Ibaraki's 2nd district.[Japanese asset price bubble
The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and Japan's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceleration ...]
, 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
Junichiro Koizumi (; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a former Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is ...
, who recruited a large number of new LDP representatives dubbed "
Koizumi Children
is a popular Japanese political term for the 83 LDP members of the House of Representatives first elected in the 2005 general election. The Koizumi Children are loosely organized into a political association called .
The term is a reference ...
" in the 2005 election, and
Ichiro Ozawa, who did the same for the
Democratic Party of Japan
The was a centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist:
*
*
*
*
*
*
* to centre-left liberal or social-liberal political party in Japan from 1998 to 2016.
The party's origins lie in the previous Democratic Part ...
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 the DPJ presidency.
Makiko Tanaka
is a Japanese politician. She is the daughter of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and his official wife Hana.
Early life
Tanaka attended high school at Germantown Friends School in the United States and graduated from Waseda University. She s ...
, 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 Sino-Japanese is often used to mean:
* Sino-Japanese vocabulary: That portion of the Japanese vocabulary that is of Chinese origin or makes use of morphemes of Chinese origin (similar to the use of Latin/Greek in English).
* Kanbun: A Japanese meth ...
, she became popular in the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and publicly opposed several anti-PRC actions by Japan and the United States, including Koizumi's visits to
Yasukuni Shrine
is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...
. She lost her seat in the
December 2012 general election, by which point Etsuzankai had disbanded with only a few elderly surviving members.
See also
References
External links
Tanaka biography rcrinc.com; accessed 18 June 2015.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Kakuei
1918 births
1993 deaths
20th-century prime ministers of Japan
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Democratic Party (Japan, 1947) politicians
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People convicted of bribery
Japanese racehorse owners and breeders
Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians
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People from Niigata Prefecture
20th-century Japanese politicians
Lockheed bribery scandals
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Military personnel of the Second Sino-Japanese War
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