Yasuhiro Nakasone

(Redirected from Nakasone Yasuhiro) Prime Minister of Japan from 1982 to 1987

Junior First RankYasuhiro Nakasone
中曽根康弘
Official portrait, 1982

Prime Minister of Japan
In office 27 November 1982 – 6 November 1987
Monarch	Shōwa
Deputy	Shin Kanemaru
Preceded by	Zenkō Suzuki
Succeeded by	Noboru Takeshita
President of the Liberal Democratic Party
In office 25 November 1982 – 31 October 1987
Vice President	Susumu Nikaidō
Secretary-General	Susumu Nikaidō Rokusuke Tanaka Shin Kanemaru Noboru Takeshita Shintaro Abe
Preceded by	Zenkō Suzuki
Succeeded by	Noboru Takeshita
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 26 April 1947 – 10 October 2004
Constituency	Gunma 3rd district (1947–1996) Northern Kanto PR (1996–2004)

Personal details
Born	(1918-05-27)27 May 1918 Takasaki, Gunma, Empire of Japan
Died	29 November 2019(2019-11-29) (aged 101) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic
Spouse	Tsutako Nakasone (m. 1945; died 2012)
Children	Hirofumi Nakasone
Alma mater	Tokyo Imperial University
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Branch/service	Imperial Japanese Navy
Years of service	1941–1945
Rank	Lieutenant-commander (as Naval Paymaster)
Battles/wars	World War II
Yasuhiro Nakasone's voice Nakasone on Japan–United States relations Recorded 2 January 1985

Yasuhiro Nakasone (中曽根康弘, Nakasone Yasuhiro, 27 May 1918 – 29 November 2019) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1982 to 1987. His political term was best known for pushing through the privatization of state-owned companies and pursuing a hawkish and pro-U.S. foreign policy.

Born in Gunma Prefecture, Nakasone graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and served in the imperial navy during the Pacific War. After the war, he entered the National Diet in 1947 and rose through the ranks of the Liberal Democratic Party, serving as chief of the Defense Agency from 1970 to 1971 under Eisaku Satō, international trade and industry minister from 1972 to 1974 under Kakuei Tanaka, and administration minister from 1980 to 1982 under Zenkō Suzuki. As prime minister, he passed large defense budgets and controversially visited the Yasukuni Shrine. A conservative contemporary of U.S. president Ronald Reagan, Nakasone privatized Japan's railroad and telephone systems, and favored closer ties with the U.S., once calling Japan "America's unsinkable aircraft carrier". After leaving office in 1987, he was implicated in the Recruit scandal, causing the influence of his LDP faction to wane before he retired from the Diet in 2004.

Early life

Nakasone was born in Takasaki in Gunma, a prefecture northwest of Tokyo, on 27 May 1918. He was the second son of Nakasone Matsugoro II, a lumber dealer, and Nakamura Yuku. He had five siblings: an elder brother named Kichitaro, an elder sister named Shoko, a younger brother named Ryosuke and another younger brother and younger sister who both died in childhood. The Nakasone family had been of the samurai class during the Edo period, and claimed direct descent from the Minamoto clan through the famous Minamoto no Yoshimitsu and through his son Minamoto no Yoshikiyo (d. 1149). According to family records, Tsunayoshi (k. 1417), a vassal of the Takeda clan and a tenth-generation descendant of Yoshikiyo, took the name of Nakasone Juro and was killed at the Battle of Sagamigawa. In about 1590, the samurai Nakasone Sōemon Mitsunaga settled in the town of Satomimura [ja] in Kōzuke Province. His descendants became silk merchants and pawnbrokers. Nakasone's father, originally born Nakasone Kanichi, settled in Takasaki in 1912 and established a timber business and lumberyard which had success as a result of the post-WWI building boom.

Nakasone described his early childhood and youth as a happy one, and himself as a "quiet, easy-going child" nicknamed "Yat-chan". He attended a local primary school in Takasaki and was a poor student until the fourth grade, after which he excelled and was at the top of his class. He entered Shizuoka Higher School in 1935, where he excelled in history and literature, and learned to speak fluent French. In the autumn of 1938, Nakasone entered the Faculty of Law of the Imperial University of Tokyo. During World War II, he was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy as a paymaster. As a lieutenant, he was stationed at Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, to build an airfield. There, he realized that the construction of the airfield had been stalled due to the prevalence of sexual crimes, gambling, and other problems among his men, so he gathered comfort women and organized a brothel called “comfort station” as a solution. He managed to procure four Indonesian women, and a Navy report praised him for having “mitigated the mood of his troops". His decision to provide comfort women to his troops was replicated by thousands of Imperial Japanese Army and Navy officers across the Indo-Pacific both before and during World War II, as a matter of policy. From Nauru to Vietnam, from Burma to Timor, women were treated as the first reward of conquest. He later wrote of his return to Tokyo in August 1945 after Japan's surrender: "I stood vacantly amid the ruins of Tokyo, after discarding my officer's short sword and removing the epaulettes of my uniform. As I looked around me, I swore to resurrect my homeland from the ashes of defeat".

In 1947, he gave up a promising career in an elite government ministry to run for Parliament with the belief that in its postwar remorse, Japan was in danger of discarding its traditional values. He campaigned on a nationalist platform, arguing for an enlarged Self-Defence Force, to amend Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution (which outlawed war as a means to settling international disputes), and to revive Japanese patriotism, especially in reverence for the Emperor. He entered the Japanese Diet as a member of the House of Representatives for the Democratic Party. "As a freshman lawmaker in 1951, he delivered a 28-page letter to General MacArthur criticising the occupation, a brazen move. The General angrily threw the letter in bin, Yasuhiro was later told. This stand established credentials as a right-wing politician." He gained brief notoriety in 1952 for blaming Emperor Hirohito for Japan's defeat in the war. In 1955, at Nakasone's urging, the government granted the equivalent of $14,000,000 to the Agency for Industrial Science and Technology to begin nuclear power research. Nakasone rose through the LDP's ranks, becoming Minister of Science in 1959 under the government of Nobusuke Kishi, then Minister of Transport in 1967, Director General of the Japan Defense Agency from 1970 to 1971, Minister of International Trade and Industry in 1972 and Minister of Administration in 1981.

As the head of the Self-Defence Force, Nakasone argued for an increase in defence spending from less than 1% GDP to 3% of GDP. He was also in favour of Japan having tactical nuclear weapons. He was labelled "the weathervane" in 1972 because he switched his support from Takeo Fukuda to Kakuei Tanaka in the leadership election, ensuring Tanaka's victory. In turn, Tanaka would give his powerful support to Nakasone against Fukuda a decade later in the fight for the premiership.

Premiership

In 1982, Nakasone became prime minister. Along with Minister of Foreign Affairs Shintaro Abe, Nakasone improved Japanese relations with the USSR and the People's Republic of China. Nakasone was best known for his close relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, popularly called the "Ron-Yasu" friendship. Nakasone sought a more equal relationship with the United States, and said: "President Reagan is the pitcher and I'm the catcher. When the pitcher gives the signs, I'll co-operate unsparingly, but if he doesn't sometimes follow the catcher's signs, the game can't be won". Nakasone said Japan would be "America's unsinkable aircraft carrier" in the Pacific and that Japan would "keep complete control of the four straits that go through to Japanese islands, to prevent the passage of Soviet submarines". He was attacked by political opponents as a reactionary and a "dangerous militarist". Nakasone responded by saying: "A nation must shed any sense of ignominy and move forward seeking glory". However his attempt to amend Article 9 failed.

In 1984, Nakasone visited China on the twelfth anniversary of Japan's diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic, for which the Chinese government arranged tours of China for 3,000 Japanese youths. On the trip, Nakasone's son was privately accompanied by the daughter of Hu Yaobang, the-then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. After the event, Hu was criticised by other members of the Chinese Communist Party for the extravagance and warmth of the event. Nakasone also visited President Corazon Aquino in a series of talks between the Philippines and Japan during a special state visit from 1986 to 1987, to provide good economic and trade relations.

In economic affairs, Nakasone's most notable policy was his privatisation initiative, which led to the breakup of Japan National Railways into the modern Japan Railways Group (JR). This led to 80,000 redundancies, unheard of in Japan until that point. He also privatized Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation and Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation to create Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) and Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT). The privatization of the three public corporations reduced the number of employees and significantly improved ordinary income per employee, productivity, and sales. According to a report by Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training, 20 years after the privatization of NTT and JT and 16 years after the privatization of JR, the number of employees was reduced to 35% for JT, 65% for NTT and 70% for JR. In addition, NTT, JT and JR increased their ordinary income by 8 times, 5.5 times and 3 times, respectively. The productivity of NTT, JT and JR increased 3 times, 2.5 times and 1.5 times, respectively. Sales at NTT and JR increased 2.2 times and 1.2 times, respectively. Nakasone wrote of his economic reforms:

I was carrying out a kind of "improvement" of Japan's structure. For 110 years, ever since the Meiji restoration, Japan had been striving to catch up with America and Britain. In the 1970s we did catch up. Beyond that point the regulations only stand in the way of the growth of the economy. If government officials have too much power, the private sector of the economy will not grow. We had to change the system.

For the first time in Japan's post-war history, bureaucrats lost their leading role. In 1985, Nakasone appointed the former Governor of the Bank of Japan, Haruo Maekawa, to head a commission on Japan's economic future. In 1986, the Commission recommended that Japan should grow not through exports (which were angering Japan's trading partners) but from within. Nakasone advised the Japanese public to purchase foreign imports; in a well-publicised shopping trip, he bought an American tennis racket, an Italian tie and a French shirt. He said: "Japan is like a mah-jong player who always wins. Sooner or later the other players will decide that they do not want to play with him". The Japanese public were skeptical but the Commission created a good impression abroad, especially in America, where the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs W. Allen Wallis called it a watershed in Japan's post-war economic policy.

Nakasone also became known for having a nationalist attitude and for wanting to stimulate ethnic pride amongst the Japanese. He was an adherent to the nihonjinron theory that claims Japan is incomparably different from the rest of the world. Influenced by Japanese philosopher Tetsuro Watsuji, Nakasone believed that Japan's "monsoon culture" inspired a special Japanese compassion, unlike the desert culture of the Middle East that produced the Judeo-Christian "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". In a speech in 1986, Nakasone said it was Japan's international mission to spread the monsoon culture abroad.

On 15 August 1985, the fortieth anniversary of Japan's surrender, Nakasone and his Cabinet visited the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war casualties - including convicted war criminals - were buried, in full mourning dress. This had great symbolic significance as he visited the shrine in his official capacity, intending to reassert the Japanese government's respect for the spirits of the ancestors killed in battle, including those who died in World War II. This turned out however to be a controversial move which was heavily criticised by the Chinese Government (including in its newspaper, People's Daily) and led to angry demonstrations in Beijing. It was also attacked by opponents at home for violating the Constitution's separation of religion and state. Nakasone defended his actions by saying, "The true defence of Japan ... becomes possible only through the combination of liberty-loving peoples who are equal to each other ... The manner is desired to be based on self-determination of the race". He also said, "It is considered progressive to criticise pre-war Japan for its faults and defects, but I firmly oppose such a notion. A nation is still a nation whether it wins or loses a war".

Nakasone also sought educational reform, setting up a commission. Its report recommended that "a spirit of patriotism" should be inculcated in children, along with respect for elders and authority. This was not fully implemented and came under attack from the teachers' trade union. The commission also recommended that the national anthem should be taught and that the Rising Sun Flag should also be raised during entrance and graduation ceremonies. History textbooks were also reformed. In 1986, Nakasone dismissed his Education Minister, Masayuki Fujio, after he justified Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910.

Nakasone aroused controversy in September 1986 when he claimed that Americans were, on average, less intelligent than Japanese because "the US has many immigrants, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Blacks, who bring the average level down" and also said that "in America today there are still many Blacks who can't even read." He then clarified his comments, stating that he meant to congratulate the U.S. on its economic success despite the presence of "problematic" minorities. Ainu people living in Japan criticized this comment as ignoring the reality of racial discrimination against them.

In 1987, he was forced to resign after he attempted to introduce a value added tax to reduce the burden of direct taxes in a policy designed to cut the budget deficit.

Having lunch with Ronald Reagan (at Nakasone's country residence in Hinode, Nishitama, Tokyo in 1983)
With leaders of the G7 (at the 9th G7 summit in 1983)
With Ronald Reagan (at Camp David on 13 April 1986)
With Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan (at Camp David on 13 April 1986)

Later political life

Nakasone was replaced by Noboru Takeshita in 1987, and was implicated, along with other LDP lawmakers, in the Recruit scandal that broke the following year.

Although he remained in the Diet for another decade and a half, his influence gradually waned. In 2003, despite a fight, Nakasone was not given a place on the LDP's electoral list as the party, by then led by Jun'ichirō Koizumi, introduced an age limit of 73 years for candidates in the proportional representation blocks, ending his career as a member of the Diet.

In 2010, "aware of his status as one of the few leaders revered across Japan's suddenly fractured political landscape" and the country's "most revered elder statesman", Nakasone launched a series of interviews to address the direction of prime minister Yukio Hatoyama's government. In a profile at that time, he saw Hatoyama's "inexperienced left-leaning" government as "challenging Japan's postwar political order and its close relationship with the United States". As well, the LDP was "crumbling into disarray" in the wake of Hatoyama's victory. In the profile, Nakasone described the moment "as a national opening on par with the wrenching social and political changes that followed defeat in the war praised the appearance of a strong second political party as a step toward true democracy". "Being knocked out of power is a good chance to study in the cram school of public opinion", he was quoted as saying of the LDP. He "faulted Mr. Hatoyama for giving Washington the impression that valued ties with China more than he did those with the United States. 'Because of the prime minister’s imprudent remarks, the current situation calls for Japan to make efforts to improve things,' he said. The relationship with the United States is different from that with China, he said, because 'it is built on a security alliance, and not just on the alliance, but on the shared values of liberal democracy, and on its shared ideals.'" And relative to another high-profile current source of friction between Japan and the United States, Nakasone said: "Problems like Okinawa can be solved by talking together."

Personal life and death

On 11 February 1945, Nakasone married Tsutako Nakasone (30 October 1921 – 7 November 2012). Nakasone's son, Hirofumi Nakasone, is also a member of the Diet; he has served as Minister of Education and as Minister of Foreign Affairs. His grandson, Yasutaka Nakasone, is a member of the House of Representatives.

Nakasone died in Tokyo on 29 November 2019, at the age of 101 years and 186 days. Nakasone was the second oldest Prime Minister of Japan by age after Naruhiko Higashikuni, who lived to 102 years, 48 days.

Honours

National honours

Order of the Chrysanthemum:
- Grand Cordon, 29 April 1997
- Collar, 29 November 2019 (posthumously)
- Golden Pheasant Award of the Scout Association of Japan (1986)
- Junior First Rank (29 November 2019; posthumously)

Foreign honours

References

Citations

Lentz, Harris M. (4 February 2014). Heads of States and Governments Since 1945. Routledge. p. 464. ISBN 978-1-134-26490-2.
^ Fackler, Martin (29 January 2010). "Japan's Elder Statesman Is Silent No Longer". The New York Times. p. A11. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
The Making of the New Japan. Curzon Press. 6 March 2015. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-7007-1246-5.
^ The Making of the New Japan. Curzon Press. 2015. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-7007-1246-5.
The Making of the New Japan. Curzon Press. 6 March 2015. pp. 6–13. ISBN 978-0-7007-1246-5.
^ Kotler, Mindy (14 November 2014). "The Comfort Women and Japan's War on Truth (Published 2014)". The New York Times.
"『報道特集』がついに中曽根元首相の「土人女を集め慰安所開設」文書を報道！息子の弘文が慰安婦否定の責任者ってなんの冗談？". 本と雑誌のニュースサイト／リテラ. No. July 2017. LITERA. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
Harvey, Robert (1994). The Undefeated: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Greater Japan. London: Macmillan. p. 362.
Harvey, p. 362.
"The Senkyo, 23rd election of the House of Representatives, Gunma's 3rd district". Archived from the original on 9 March 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
Bix, H.P. Hirohito, 2000. page 649.
Daniel P. Aldrich, With a Mighty Hand, New Republic
^ Harvey, p. 363.
^ Harvey, p. 365.
Lee, Khoon Choy (2005). Pioneers of Modern China: Understanding the Inscrutable Chinese. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing. p. 311. ISBN 981-256-464-0.
Burgess, John (11 November 1986). "Japan Promises Aquino Aid". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
Burgess, John (14 November 1986). "Aquino Ends Visit to Japan". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
^ Harvey, p. 369.
中曽根康弘 (in Japanese). Jiji Press. Archived from the original on 26 July 2022.
^ 調査の目的と民営化の動向 (PDF) (in Japanese). Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training. pp. 5, 12–14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 September 2021.
^ Harvey, p. 364.
Karel van Wolferen (1990). The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation. New York: Vintage. p. 413.
Wolferen, p. 267.
^ Wolferen, p. 264.
Harvey, p. 367.
Haberman, Clyde (10 October 1985). "Nakasone, Giving in, Will Shun Shrine". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
^ Harvey, p. 368.
Thorsten, Marie (15 March 2012). Superhuman Japan: Knowledge, Nation and Culture in US-Japan Relations. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-44672-6.
Bowen, Ezra (24 June 2001). "Nakasone's World-Class Blunder". Time. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007.
"'No Minority Races in Japan,' Says Nakasone". The Japan Times. 24 October 1986. p. 2.
"Ex-Executive Is Sentenced in Japan's Recruit Scandal". Los Angeles Times. 10 October 1990.
Sanger, David E. (10 October 1990). "Big Conviction in Recruit Scandal". The New York Times.
"Single-seat constituencies offer refuge for LDP elders who refuse to retire". The Japan Times. 24 October 2003. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
"Yasuhiro Nakasone dies". NHK World-Japan News. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
IPS Chiyoda-ku; Leslie Connors; Yasuhiro Nakasone (6 December 2012). The Making of the New Japan: Reclaiming the Political Mainstream. ISBN 9781136116506. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
中曽根弘文公式ブログ/中曽根蔦子との別れ - GREE. Gree.jp. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
誕生日データベース. Tisen.jp. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
朝日新聞デジタル：中曽根蔦子さん死去康弘元首相の妻 - おくやみ・訃報. Asahi.com. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
"Nakasone Hirofumi" 中曽根弘文. jimin.jp. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
"LDP Members NAKASONE Yasutaka". jimin.jp. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
"Ex-Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone dies at 101". Kyodo News+. English.kyodonews.net. 29 November 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
Norimitsu Onishi (28 November 2019). "Yasuhiro Nakasone, Assertive Prime Minister of Japan, Dies at 101". New York Times. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
"Ex-Japan PM Nakasone to turn 100 on May 27". Mainichi Daily News. 26 May 2018.
^ From the corresponding article in the Japanese Misplaced Pages
^ "故中曽根元首相に従一位最高勲章贈る". The Nikkei. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
䝪䞊䜲䝇䜹䜴䝖日本連盟きじ章受章者 [Recipient of the Golden Pheasant Award of the Scout Association of Japan] (PDF). Reinanzaka Scout Club (in Japanese). 23 May 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2020.

Sources

Robert Harvey, The Undefeated: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Greater Japan (London: Macmillan, 1994).
Karel van Wolferen, The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation (New York: Vintage, 1990).
The Making of the New Japan. Curzon Press. 6 March 2015.

External links

Appearances on C-SPAN

Offices and distinctions

Political offices
Preceded byZenkō Suzuki	Prime Minister of Japan 1982–1987	Succeeded byNoboru Takeshita
Preceded bySōsuke Uno	Minister of State, Head of the Administrative Management Agency 1980–1982	Succeeded byKunikichi Saitō
Preceded byKakuei Tanaka	Minister of International Trade and Industry 1972–1974	Succeeded byToshio Kōmoto
Preceded byTatsunosuke Takasaki Shirō Kiuchi	Minister of State, Head of the Science and Technology Agency 1959–1960 1972	Succeeded byMasuo Araki Kazuo Maeda
Preceded byKiichi Arita	Minister of State, Head of the Defense Agency 1970–1971	Succeeded byKeiichi Masuhara
Preceded byTakeo Ōhashi	Minister of Transport 1967–1968	Succeeded byKen Harada
Diplomatic posts
Preceded byHelmut Kohl	Chairperson of the G7 1986	Succeeded byAmintore Fanfani
Party political offices
Preceded byZenkō Suzuki	President of the Liberal Democratic Party 1982–1987	Succeeded byNoboru Takeshita
Preceded bySusumu Nikaidō	Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party 1974–1976	Succeeded byTsuneo Uchida
Preceded byZenkō Suzuki Masumi Esaki	General Council Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party 1971–1972 1977–1978	Succeeded byZenkō Suzuki Kuraishi Tadao
Preceded byHimself (Co-chairman) Umekichi Nakamura (Co-chairman) Yoshio Sakurauchi (Co-chairman)	Chairman of Shinsei Dōshikai (Nakasone faction) 1968–1978	Change of official faction name
New title Change of official faction name	Chairman of Seisaku Kagaku Kenkyūjo (Nakasone faction) 1978–1990	Succeeded byMichio Watanabe
House of Representatives (Japan)
New title New district	Representative for Gunma's 3rd district (multi-member) 1947–1996 Served alongside: Mitsuhei Obuchi, Takeo Fukuda, Tsuruo Yamaguchi, Keizō Obuchi, Yasuo Fukuda, numerous others	District eliminated
New title Introduction of proportional voting	Representative for the Kita-Kantō PR block 1996–2004	Succeeded byGenichiro Sata
Academic offices
Preceded byYoshiro Ando	Principal of Takushoku University 1967–1971	Succeeded byTeisuke Toyoda

Prime ministers of Japan (list)

Empire of Japan
(1868–1947)

Meiji era (1868–1912)	H. Itō Kuroda Sanjō (caretaker) Yamagata Matsukata H. Itō Kuroda (acting) Matsukata H. Itō Ōkuma Yamagata H. Itō Saionji (acting) Katsura Saionji
Taishō era (1912–1926)	Katsura Saionji Katsura Yamamoto Ōkuma Terauchi Hara Uchida (acting) Takahashi To. Katō Uchida (acting) Yamamoto Kiyoura Ta. Katō Wakatsuki
Shōwa era (1926–1947)	G. Tanaka Hamaguchi Shidehara (acting) Hamaguchi Wakatsuki Inukai Takahashi (acting) Saitō Okada Gotō (acting) Okada Hirota Hayashi Konoe Hiranuma N. Abe Yonai Konoe Tōjō Koiso K. Suzuki Higashikuni Shidehara Yoshida

State of Japan
(1947–present)

Shōwa era (1947–1989)	Katayama Ashida Yoshida I. Hatoyama Ishibashi Kishi Ikeda Satō K. Tanaka Miki T. Fukuda Ōhira M. Itō (acting) Z. Suzuki Nakasone Takeshita
Heisei era (1989–2019)	Uno Kaifu Miyazawa Hosokawa Hata Murayama Hashimoto Obuchi Aoki Mori Koizumi S. Abe Y. Fukuda Asō Y. Hatoyama Kan Noda S. Abe
Reiwa era (2019–present)	Suga Kishida Ishiba

v t e Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
Leaders	Hatoyama Ishibashi Kishi Ikeda Satō Tanaka Miki T. Fukuda Ōhira Nishimura Suzuki Nakasone Takeshita Uno Kaifu Miyazawa Kōno Hashimoto Obuchi Mori Koizumi Abe Y. Fukuda Asō Tanigaki Abe Suga Kishida Ishiba
Leadership elections	Apr 1956 Dec 1956 1957 1959 1960 1962 Jul 1964 Nov 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1987 Jun 1989 Aug 1989 1991 1993 1995 1998 1999 2000 [ja] 2001 [ja] 2003 [ja] 2006 2007 2008 2009 2012 2015 2018 2020 2021 2024
Factions	Heisei Kenkyūkai Kōchikai Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai Shikōkai Shisuikai
Preceding parties	Liberal Party Japan Democratic Party
Absorbed parties	Okinawa Liberal Democratic Party [ja] (1970) New Liberal Club (1986) New Conservative Party (2003) Party for Japanese Kokoro (2018)
Split parties	New Liberal Club (1976) Japan New Party (1992) Japan Renewal Party (1993) New Party Sakigake (1993) People's New Party (2005) Your Party (2009) Sunrise Party (2010) New Renaissance Party (2010) Japan Restoration Party (2012)
Italics denote acting leader.

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