32 Facts About Hayato Ikeda

Hayato Ikeda was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964.

Hayato Ikeda is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double the size of Japan's economy in 10 years, and for presiding over the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Hayato Ikeda briefly headed the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1952, but resigned after a no-confidence motion.

Hayato Ikeda returned as finance minister under Tanzan Ishibashi from 1956 to 1957, and as international trade and industry minister from 1959 to 1960.

Hayato Ikeda succeeded Nobusuke Kishi as president of the Liberal Democratic Party and prime minister in 1960, following Kishi's resignation amid the massive Anpo protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty.

Hayato Ikeda was born on 3 December 1899, in Yoshina, Hiroshima Prefecture, the youngest child of Goichiro Hayato Ikeda and his wife Ume.

Hayato Ikeda attended Kyoto Imperial University and joined the Ministry of Finance following graduation in 1925.

Hayato Ikeda briefly considered accepting a position at Hitachi, but returned to the Ministry of Finance in December 1934 to head a tax office in Osaka.

Hayato Ikeda remained within the ministry through the end of World War II, eventually becoming Vice Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida in 1947.

Hayato Ikeda resigned from the Ministry of Finance in 1948 and won a seat in the House of Representatives, representing a portion of Hiroshima Prefecture, in the general election of 23 January 1949.

Hayato Ikeda was a part of the liberal group that established the Democratic Liberal Party, a forerunner of the current Liberal Democratic Party.

Hayato Ikeda was appointed Minister of Finance on 16 February 1949 by Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, and on 7 March announced the Dodge Line monetary policy with American occupation advisor Joseph Dodge.

Hayato Ikeda then became minister without portfolio in June 1958, and Minister of International Trade and Industry in June 1959.

Hayato Ikeda was elected president of the LDP and became Prime Minister in July 1960, at an extremely difficult moment in Japanese domestic politics and US-Japan relations.

Hayato Ikeda inherited from Kishi a violent dispute at the Miike Coal Mine in Kyushu, where striking coal miners repeatedly clashed with right-wing thugs sent by their corporate overlords to break the strike.

Hayato Ikeda had been a compromise candidate to succeed Kishi, and had only secured the premiership by promising to call an immediate election, just a few months later in the fall of 1960.

Hayato Ikeda underwent a deliberate physical makeover, switching out the dark, double-breasted suits and severe, wire-rimmed glasses he had worn prior to becoming prime minister for more approachable light, single-breasted suits and thick, plastic-rimmed glasses.

Hayato Ikeda immediately dispatched Ishida to negotiate a compromise between the miners and Mitsui corporation, which owned the mine, and Ishida succeeded in getting the two sides to agree to binding arbitration, finally bringing an end to the year-long Miike Struggle in December 1960.

Hayato Ikeda placed a high priority on repairing the US Japan relationship, which had been damaged by the anti-American character of the anti-Treaty protests and the cancellation of Eisenhower's visit.

Hayato Ikeda gave numerous reassurances to the US government that he would staunchly support US Cold War policies, including support for Taiwan and non-interaction with mainland China.

Hayato Ikeda asked for, and was granted, a summit meeting with incoming US president John F Kennedy in Washington DC in the summer of 1961.

At the summit, Hayato Ikeda reiterated his support for US policy, and Kennedy promised to treat Japan more like a close ally such as Great Britain.

Hayato Ikeda hoped to make up for Eisenhower's inability to visit Japan by hosting Kennedy in Tokyo, and Kennedy agreed.

Hayato Ikeda relentlessly pushed Japanese trade abroad, in support of his goal to expand export-led economic growth under the Income Doubling Plan.

Domestically, Hayato Ikeda fulfilled his promise to expand the social safety net in support of the Income Doubling Plan.

In 1963, Hayato Ikeda remained extremely popular and was able to win a second term as prime minister.

Hayato Ikeda even made "no constitutional revision on our watch" one of the LDP's campaign slogans for the general election.

Hayato Ikeda contracted laryngeal cancer and was admitted to the National Cancer Center for treatment in September 1964, by which point the condition had progressed considerably.

On 25 October, the day after the closing of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Hayato Ikeda announced his resignation.

Historian Nick Kapur credits Hayato Ikeda with stabilizing the "1955 System" in Japanese politics, after it nearly came apart amid vicious factional infighting within the LDP during the 1960 Security Treaty crisis.

Hayato Ikeda helped turn the LDP into a stable, "big tent" party that could win thumping super-majorities at the polls by winning votes from a broad cross-section of interest groups, while not abusing those super-majorities by ramming through unpopular policies.

Hayato Ikeda will be remembered as the man who pulled together a national consensus for economic growth and who strove unceasingly for the realization of that goal.