Former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda dies at 90
Fukuda, who sought closer ties with China during less than a year in office, died of heart failure in Tokyo last Thursday, Japanese media reported.
Former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda has died at the age of 90. The Straits Times, carrying a Reuters report, said the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday that he died of heart failure on October 22. The South China Morning Post reported that he died in a Tokyo hospital.
Fukuda became prime minister in September 2007, The Japan Times reported. He was the son of former leader Takeo Fukuda and the first second-generation prime minister in Japan. He took over after Shinzo Abe resigned suddenly and was in office for less than a year. His father's term lasted two years.
In that short time he sought closer ties with Asian neighbours, China in particular. Reuters said he was known as a diplomatic dove and visited China several times after leaving office to try to improve relations. The SCMP said he later acted as a diplomatic intermediary during bilateral crises. It reported that he died as the relationship faces its gravest test since the two countries normalised diplomatic ties in 1972.
He came to politics late. After graduating in economics from Waseda University in Tokyo, he spent nearly two decades rising through the ranks of an oil company, including a two-year posting in the US. He left in 1976 to become a political secretary when his father became premier.
Fukuda was elected to the Lower House in 1990. He served as chief Cabinet secretary from 2000 to 2004 and resigned as one of several Cabinet ministers who admitted they had not paid into the pension system.
Reuters said he was known for a testy manner. In 2003 he was criticised for off-the-record comments in which he suggested women who dressed provocatively were asking to be raped.
When he succeeded Abe, he joked that he might have drawn the short straw. Parliament was divided and opposition parties could delay legislation. Frustrated that bills had stalled, he resigned in 2008. He was the second of six prime ministers who quit after only about a year in office.
Fukuda is survived by his son Tatsuo, also a lawmaker, who has been seen as a possible future prime minister.
Sources: South China Morning Post, Death of former PM Yasuo Fukuda leaves void in fraught China-Japan relations; The Straits Times, Yasuo Fukuda, Japan’s first second-generation prime minister, dies at 90: Media reports; The Japan Times, Former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda dies at 90.
