Kiichi Miyazawa

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Kiichi Miyazawa
宮澤 喜一
Official portrait, 1991
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 5 November 1991 – 9 August 1993
Monarch	Akihito
Preceded by	Toshiki Kaifu
Succeeded by	Morihiro Hosokawa
President of the Liberal Democratic Party
In office 31 October 1991 – 29 July 1993
Vice President	Shin Kanemaru
Secretary-General	Tamisuke Watanuki Seiroku Kajiyama
Preceded by	Toshiki Kaifu
Succeeded by	Yōhei Kōno
Ministerial offices Masayoshi Ohira Succeeded by Kakuei Tanaka
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 29 January 1967 – 10 October 2003
Constituency	Hiroshima 3rd (1967–1996) Hiroshima 7th (1996–2000) Chūgoku PR (2000–2003)
Member of the House of Councillors
In office 3 May 1953 – 1 June 1965
Preceded by	Gishin Yamashita
Succeeded by	Masaaki Fujita
Constituency	Hiroshima at-large
Personal details
Born	(1919-10-08)8 October 1919 Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died	28 June 2007(2007-06-28) (aged 87) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic
Spouse	Yoko Miyazawa
Children	2
Alma mater	Tokyo Imperial University
Signature

Kiichi Miyazawa (宮澤 喜一, Miyazawa Kiichi, 8 October 1919 – 28 June 2007^[1]) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1991 to 1993.

Born in

Miyazawa studied at Musashi Higher School, then went on to study at the Faculty of Law, Tokyo Imperial University.^[3] While at university, Miyazawa travelled to attend the Japan-America Student Conference in Washington D.C. in the United States in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Inspired by this experience, he kept learning English even during the time the country was at war with the US, and became a fluent speaker. Apart from his studies, he was passionate about Noh, films and music.^[6]

In 1942, Miyazawa joined the Ministry of Finance, avoiding military service during World War II.^[3] While in the Ministry, he became a protégé of future prime minister Hayato Ikeda.

In 1953, at Ikeda's urging, Miyazawa ran for and won election to the Upper House of the

Beginning with the Ikeda cabinet, Miyazawa held a number of important government posts, including Director of the Economic Planning Agency (1962-64, 1966-68, 1977-78), Minister of International Trade and Industry (1970–1971), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1974–1976), and Chief Cabinet Secretary (1984–1986). He became Minister of Finance under the government of Noboru Takeshita in July 1986. However, Miyazawa had to resign from this post amid the Recruit scandal in 1988.^[1]

Miyazawa became Prime Minister on 5 November 1991 backed by his faction.^[9] Miyazawa gained brief fame in the United States when President George H. W. Bush vomited in his lap and fainted during a state dinner on 8 January 1992.

In 1992, while he was in South Korea, he formally apologized for Japan's use of comfort women, making him the first Japanese leader to acknowledge that Japan's military coerced women into sexual slavery before and during the Second World War.^[3]

His government passed a law allowing Japan to send its forces overseas for

Miyazawa later returned to frontbench politics when he was once again appointed finance minister from 1998 to 2001 in the governments of Keizō Obuchi and Yoshirō Mori. In 1998, Miyazawa replaced Hikaru Matsunaga as finance minister.^[10][11] He served a total of 14 terms in both upper and lower houses before retiring from politics in 2003.^[3][12] The reason for his retirement was that then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi set an age limit of 73 for LDP political candidates.^[13]

Miyazawa married while studying in the United States. He and his wife, Yoko, had two children: Hiro, an architect, and Keiko, who became wife of diplomat Christopher J. LaFleur [zh].^[14][3] He published a book, entitled Secret Talks Between Tokyo and Washington, which was translated into English by Robert D. Eldridge in 2007. The book is about Miyazawa's views concerning the relationships between the US and Japan in terms of the political, economic, and security-related negotiations during the period of 1949 and 1954.^[15]

Miyazawa died in Tokyo at the age of 87 on 28 June 2007.^[1][12]

• Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru (1992)^[16]