Eisaku Satō

Prime Minister of Japan

27 March 1901 Tabuse, Yamaguchi, Japan

3 June 1975(1975-06-03) (74) Tokyo, Japan

9 November 1964 – 7 July 1972

61st, 62nd and 63rd Prime Minister of Japan (1901–1975) This article is about the Prime Minister of Japan. For the governor of Fukushima Prefecture of Japan of the same name, see Eisaku Satō (governor). Eisaku Satō (佐藤 榮作 , Satō Eisaku, 27 March 1901 – 3 June 1975) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1964 to 1972. He is the third-longest serving Prime Minister, and ranks second in longest uninterrupted service as Prime Minister. Satō entered the National Diet in 1949 as a member of the Liberal Party. Gradually rising through the ranks of Japanese politics, he held a series of cabinet positions. In 1964 he succeeded Hayato Ikeda as Prime Minister of Japan, becoming the first Prime Minister to have been born in the 20th century. As Prime Minister, Satō presided over a period of rapid economic growth. He arranged for the formal return of Okinawa (occupied by the United States since the end of the Second World War) to Japanese control. Satō brought Japan into the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974.