Kakuei Tanaka

Kakuei Tanaka
田中 角栄
Official portrait, 1972
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 7 July 1972 – 9 December 1974
Monarch	Hirohito
Deputy	Takeo Miki
Preceded by	Eisaku Satō
Succeeded by	Takeo Miki
President of the Liberal Democratic Party
In office 5 July 1972 – 4 December 1974
Vice President	Etsusaburo Shiina
Secretary-General	Tomisaburo Hashimoto Susumu Nikaidō
Preceded by	Eisaku Satō
Succeeded by	Takeo Miki
Minister of International Trade and Industry
In office 5 July 1971 – 7 July 1972
Prime Minister	Eisaku Satō
Preceded by	Kiichi Miyazawa
Succeeded by	Yasuhiro Nakasone
Minister of Finance
In office 18 July 1962 – 3 June 1965
Prime Minister	Hayato Ikeda Eisaku Satō
Preceded by	Mikio Mizuta
Succeeded by	Takeo Fukuda
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications
In office 10 July 1957 – 12 June 1958
Prime Minister	Nobusuke Kishi
Preceded by	Taro Hirai
Succeeded by	Yutaka Terao
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 25 April 1947 – 18 February 1990
Constituency	Niigata 3rd
Personal details
Born	(1918-05-04)4 May 1918 Kariwa, Niigata, Japan
Died	16 December 1993(1993-12-16) (aged 75) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic Party (1955–1993)
Other political affiliations	Democratic Party (1947) Dōshi Club (1947–1948) Democratic Liberal Party (1948–1950) Liberal Party (1950–1955)
Spouse	Hana Sakamoto
Children	Masanori Tanaka (by Hana Sakamoto, died age 4) Makiko Tanaka (by Hana Sakamoto) Kyo Tanaka (by Tsuji Wako) Hitoshi Tanaka (by Tsuji Wako) Atsuko Sato (by Akiko Sato)
Signature
Military career
Allegiance	Japan
Service / branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1939–1941
Rank	Superior Private
Battles / wars	Second Sino-Japanese War Second World War
Japanese name
Shinjitai	田中 角栄
Kyūjitai	田中 角榮
Kana	たなか かくえい
Transcriptions Romanization Tanaka Kakuei

Kakuei Tanaka (田中 角栄, Tanaka Kakuei, 4 May 1918 – 16 December 1993) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. Known for his background in construction and earthy and tenacious political style, Tanaka is the only modern Japanese prime minister who did not finish high school or graduate from a university.

Born in Niigata Prefecture to a poor farmer, Tanaka left school at age 14. He later received an engineering education and founded his own construction company in 1936. In 1940, he was drafted into the army and served in Manchuria until 1941; during the Pacific War, he made a fortune from government contracts. After the war, Tanaka was first elected to the National Diet in 1947. He joined the Liberal Democratic Party on its foundation in 1955, and held a series of cabinet positions, including posts and telecommunications minister from 1957 to 1958, finance minister from 1962 to 1965, and international trade and industry minister from 1971 to 1972. He built up a large faction in the party by political maneuvering and extensive use of money.

After a power struggle with Takeo Fukuda, Tanaka succeeded Eisaku Satō as prime minister in 1972. Domestically, he pursued his "Plan to Remodel the Japanese Archipelago", an infrastructure development program, before it was shelved due to inflation and the 1973 oil crisis. In 1972, Tanaka established relations with the People's Republic of China. Although he had entered office with a very high popularity rating, this declined quickly amid allegations of corruption before his resignation in 1974. In 1976, Tanaka was arrested and charged with taking ¥500 million in bribes in the Lockheed scandal, and in 1983 was sentenced to four years in prison. However, Tanaka remained free on appeal to the Supreme Court until his death in 1993.

Throughout his legal problems, he maintained influence through his faction, the largest faction in the LDP, and continued to serve as kingmaker for subsequent premiers, which earned him the nickname "Shadow Shōgun" (闇将軍, Yami-shōgun), among others. 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 in 1987.