Kakuei Tanaka was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. He served in the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1990. As prime minister, Tanaka advocated large-scale infrastructure development and oversaw the normalization diplomatic relations with China. Afterwards he was arrested in connection to the Lockheed bribery scandals, but nevertheless exercised a dominant influence on Japanese politics until suffering a stroke in 1985.
Noboru Takeshita was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1987 to 1989 during the bubble economy.
Sōsuke Uno was a Japanese politician who was briefly Prime Minister of Japan in 1989, the first Prime Minister who came from Shiga Prefecture. A scandal exposed by the geisha Mitsuko Nakanishi contributed to his premature resignation from office after just sixty-eight days.
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.
Shintaro Abe was a Japanese politician from Yamaguchi Prefecture. He was a leading member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He served as foreign minister from 1982 to 1986. He was the father of former prime minister Shinzo Abe and part of the Satō–Kishi–Abe family.
Masayoshi Ito was a Japanese political figure. He served as acting Prime Minister of Japan in 1980 after the sudden death of Masayoshi Ōhira. He then served as foreign minister of Japan from 1980 to 1981.
Mikio Aoki was a Japanese politician who served as the Chief Cabinet Secretary from 1999 to 2000, and was briefly acting prime minister following Keizō Obuchi's coma. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he also served as the Chairman of the LDP in the House of Councillors.
Hirohisa Fujii was a Japanese politician who was a member of the House of Councillors from 1977 to 1986, and of the House of Representatives from 1990 to 2012. He served two terms as Minister of Finance, and as Secretary General of the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party of Japan.
The Recruit scandal was an insider trading and corruption scandal that forced many prominent Japanese politicians to resign in 1988.
Lt. Col. Masahiko Takeshita was the head of the domestic affairs section of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. In August 1945, he helped plan a coup, the Kyūjō incident, along with Major Kenji Hatanaka and a handful of others. The intent of the attempted coup was to prevent the Emperor's announcement of Japan's surrender from being broadcast.
Fukushiro Nukaga is a Japanese politician who is serving as the Speaker of the House of Representatives since October 2023. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1983 and represents Ibaraki's 2nd district. He was previously the Minister of Finance from 2007 to 2008, and served twice as Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary.
Events in the year 1989 in Japan. In the history of Japan, it marks the final year of the Shōwa period, Shōwa 64, upon the death of Emperor Shōwa on January 7, and the beginning of the Heisei period, Heisei 1, from January 8 under the reign of his eldest son, the current Emperor Emeritus. Thus, 1989 corresponds to the transition between Shōwa and Heisei periods in the Japanese calendar.
General elections were held in Japan on 18 February 1990 to elect the 512 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet.
Hiromu Nonaka was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party.
House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 23 July 1989.
Factions are an accepted part of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the ruling party of Japan, which began with eight formal factions when it was first formed by merger in 1955. A political faction may be defined as a sub-group within a larger organization. While factions characterize other political parties in Pacific Asia, Japanese factionalism is distinguished by its stability and institutionalization. Although factions reconstitute themselves from time to time, the habatsu active today can be traced back to their 1955 roots, a testament to the stability and institutionalized nature of Liberal Democratic Party factions.
Ken Harada was a member of the Diet of Japan from the Liberal Democratic Party until resigning his office on January 24, 1989 following alleged involvement in the Recruit scandal, where Harada admitted Recruit had given him donations, in the form of seasonal summer gifts, for ten years. While the donations were not illegal, they raised questions of political ethics which eventually led Harada to resign. As a member of the Diet, Harada served as Minister of Economic Planning, and earned the close trust of Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita. He was the third minister to resign over the scandal. Harada had been appointed to direct the Ministry of Economic Planning only one month before his resignation. After party officials had already placed him as the chair of a committee in charge of investigating the Recruit stock scandal, where he had concluded that nothing illegal had taken place. In 1992, Harada backed Keizō Obuchi as new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party. Kōichirō Aino replaced Harada as Minister of Economic Planning.
Hiroshi Mitsuzuka was a veteran Japanese politician. He was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. He represented his party at the House of Representatives from 1972 to 2003. In addition, he served as transport minister, international trade minister, finance minister and foreign affairs minister.
Tatsuo Murayama was a Japanese politician who was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and finance minister for two times.
Kichirō Tazawa was a Japanese politician. He held different cabinet posts and served as defense minister from 1988 to 1989.
