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 as

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 ...

for nine weeks in 1994. He took over from

Morihiro Hosokawa is a Japanese politician and noble who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994, leading a coalition government which was the first non- Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government of Japan since 1955. After a funding scandal in early 1994, h ...

at the head of a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

. Shortly after he had been appointed Prime Minister, the

Japanese Socialist Party The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...

left the government, leading to his early departure from office. He was a member of the lower house representing Nagano district #3. He was elected 14 times, retiring in 2012.

Early years

Hata was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

on 24 August 1935, a son of the Liberal Democratic Party

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Bushiro Hata. Hata graduated from Seijo University and was employed by the

Odakyu , commonly known as Odakyū, is a major railway company based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for its '' Romancecar'' series of limited express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, Tama New Town, and Hakone. The Odakyu Electric Railway Company ...

bus company from 1958 to 1969.

Political career

In 1969, Hata entered the

House of Representatives of Japan The is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors is the upper house. The composition of the House is established by and of the Constitution of Japan. The House of Representatives ha ...

, representing

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He rose to become a top lieutenant in the Tanaka/ Takeshita faction in the 1980s. In 1991, he served as

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", " ...

under

Kiichi Miyazawa was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1991 to 1993. He was a member of the National Diet of Japan for over 50 years. Early life and education Miyazawa was born into a wealthy, politically active family in Fukuyama ...

. He left the LDP in 1993 to found 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 ...

with longtime LDP ally

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 ...

, which became part of

's anti-LDP coalition government later that year. Hata served as foreign minister in the Hosokawa cabinet. On 28 April 1994, Hosokawa resigned and Hata became prime minister. However, the

Japan Socialist Party The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...

had recently left the coalition, destroying its majority in the

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 ...

. Rather than face a vote of no confidence, Hata elected to resign in June, allowing SDP leader

Tomiichi Murayama is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1994 to 1996. He led the Japanese Socialist Party, and was responsible for changing its name to the Social Democratic Party (Japan), Social Democratic Party of Japan in 1996. Up ...

to take over the position on 30 June. A number of progressive reforms were introduced during Hata's tenure as prime minister. A law passed on 17 June 1994 to amend the Law concerning Stabilization of Employment for Older Persons aimed to encourage employers to plan continuous employment for older employees after the age of 60, as well as to prohibit employers from setting a compulsory retirement age lower than 60 and appoint public corporations as centres "for the practical use of older workers' experience." On 22 June 1994, the Support Centre for Employment of the Disabled was established by law to provide practical advice, vocational training, and information to disabled workers and employers. A health insurance amendment law passed on 29 June 1994 exempted employees from the requirement to pay National Health Insurance fees during child-care leave. After the Shinseito merged into the

Shinshinto The was a political party in Japan founded in December 1994. As a merger of several small parties, the party was ideologically diverse, with its membership ranging from moderate social democrats to liberals and conservatives. The party disso ...

in late 1994, Hata contested the leadership against Ichiro Ozawa. After losing this contest, he and twelve other Diet members formed the splinter

Sun Party The Sun Party (太陽党 ''Taiyōtō'') was a Japanese political party which existed from 1996 to 1998. It was a liberal reformist party that was opposed to the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan). The party was compos ...

(太陽党 Taiyōtō). The Sun Party in January 1998 became a part of the

Good Governance Party The was a Japanese political party which was in existence for a short period in early 1998. It was a centrist, reformist party that merged with other parties in April 1998 to form the Democratic Party of Japan. There was an earlier pre-war ''Min ...

which itself was subsumed by 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 April 1998.

Personal life

Hata's son, Yuichiro (1967–2020), was a member of the

House of Councillors of Japan The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...

. He was appointed the

Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The minister is also a statutory member of the National Security Council, and is nominated by the Prime M ...

on 4 June 2012. Tsutomu "Too Hot" Hata is recognized as the godfather of the Hacket, a short sleeve blazer which he also coined as an "E-cool suit". Hata was ahead of his time in this regard and concern for sensible

sustainable fashion Sustainable fashion (also known as eco-fashion) is a term describing products, processes, activities, and actors (policymakers, brands, consumers) aiming to achieve a carbon-neutral fashion industry, built on equality, social justice, animal ...

Japanese Men Dress Down To Cut Summer's Energy Costs

Death

Hata died on 28 August 2017 in Tokyo, four days after his 82nd birthday.

Honours

*: **

Grand Cordon of the

Order of the Paulownia Flowers The is an order presented by the Japanese government. Established in 1888 during the Meiji Restoration as the highest award in the Order of the Rising Sun; however, since 2003 it has been an Order in its own right. The only grade of the order i ...

(29 April 2013) *: ** PRT Order of Prince Henry - Grand Cross BAR

Grand Cross of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry ( pt, Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique) is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of ...

(2 December 1993)

References

External links

* , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hata, Tsutomu 1935 births 2017 deaths 20th-century prime ministers of Japan People from Tokyo Deputy Prime Ministers of Japan Prime Ministers of Japan Foreign ministers of Japan Ministers of Finance of Japan Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Japanese Buddhists Japanese Shintoists Democratic Party of Japan politicians Japan Renewal Party politicians New Frontier Party (Japan) politicians 20th-century Japanese politicians Sun Party politicians Good Governance Party politicians 21st-century Japanese politicians Seijo University alumni Historical negationism Recipients of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers