19 Facts About Kiichi Miyazawa

Kiichi Miyazawa was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1991 to 1993.

Kiichi Miyazawa was first elected to the National Diet in 1953 and held a number of prominent posts, including international trade and industry minister under Eisaku Sato, foreign minister under Takeo Miki, director of the Economic Planning Agency under Takeo Fukuda, chief cabinet secretary under Yasuhiro Nakasone, and finance minister under Noboru Takeshita.

Kiichi Miyazawa became prime minister in 1991, but was forced to resign after the 1993 election after a failure to pass political reforms caused his Liberal Democratic Party to face its first defeat in a national election since its formation in 1955.

Kiichi Miyazawa later returned as finance minister from 1999 to 2002 in the cabinets of Keizo Obuchi and Yoshiro Mori.

Kiichi Miyazawa was born into a wealthy, politically active family from Fukuyama, Hiroshima, on 8 October 1919, as the eldest son of politician Yutaka Kiichi Miyazawa and his wife Koto.

Kiichi Miyazawa's father was a member of the Diet, and his mother was the daughter of politician Ogawa Heikichi, who served as Minister of Justice and Minister of Railways.

Kiichi Miyazawa studied at Musashi Higher School, then went on to study at the Faculty of Law, Tokyo Imperial University.

In 1942, Kiichi Miyazawa joined the Ministry of Finance, avoiding military service during World War II.

In 1953, at Ikeda's urging, Kiichi Miyazawa ran for and won election to the Upper House of the National Diet, where he remained until moving to the Lower House in 1967.

Kiichi Miyazawa became Minister of Finance under the government of Noboru Takeshita in July 1986.

However, Kiichi Miyazawa had to resign from this post amid the Recruit scandal in 1988.

Kiichi Miyazawa became Prime Minister on 5 November 1991 backed by his faction.

Kiichi Miyazawa's government passed a law allowing Japan to send its forces overseas for peacekeeping missions as well as negotiating a trade agreement with the United States.

Kiichi Miyazawa resigned in 1993 after losing a vote of no confidence marking an end to 38 years of Liberal Democratic Party government.

Kiichi Miyazawa later returned to frontbench politics when he was appointed finance minister from 1998 to 2001 in the governments of Keizo Obuchi and Yoshiro Mori.

Kiichi Miyazawa served a total of 14 terms in both upper and lower houses before retiring from politics in 2003.

Kiichi Miyazawa published a book, entitled Secret Talks Between Tokyo and Washington, which was translated into English by Robert D Eldridge in 2007.

The book is about Kiichi Miyazawa's views concerning the relationships between the US and Japan in terms of the political, economic, and security-related negotiations during the period of 1949 and 1954.

Kiichi Miyazawa died in Tokyo at the age of 87 on 28 June 2007.