Kakuei Tanaka

Prime Minister of Japan

4 May 1918 Nishiyama, Japan

16 December 1993(1993-12-16) (75) Tokyo, Japan

7 July 1972 – 9 December 1974

20th-century Japanese politician Kakuei Tanaka (田中 角栄 or 田中 角榮 , Tanaka Kakuei, 4 May 1918 – 16 December 1993) was a Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1990, and was Prime Minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. After a power struggle with Takeo Fukuda, he became the most influential member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s. He was a central figure in several political scandals, culminating in the Lockheed bribery scandals of 1976 which led to his arrest and trial; he was found guilty by two lower courts, but his case remained open before the Supreme Court through his death. The scandals, coupled with 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. He was nicknamed Kaku-san and was known as the "Shadow Shōgun" (闇将軍 , Yami-shōgun) . (The title of "Shadow Shōgun" has since been used to describe Ichirō Ozawa.) His political-economic direction is called the construction state (土建国家 , Doken Kokka) . He was strongly identified with the construction industry but never served as construction minister. His daughter Makiko Tanaka and son-in-law Naoki Tanaka remain active political figures in Japan.