Takeo Fukuda (福田 赳夫, Fukuda Takeo; 14 January 1905 – 5 July 1995) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1976 to 1978. Born in Gunma Prefecture and educated at Tokyo Imperial University, Fukuda served as an official in the Ministry of Finance for two decades before entering politics. He was first elected to the Diet in 1952, and served as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries minister in 1959–1960 under Nobusuke Kishi, as head of the party's political affairs section under Hayato Ikeda, and as finance minister (1965–1966, 1968–1971) and foreign minister (1971–1972) under Eisaku Satō, becoming his protégé. Fukuda's political life was marked by a rivalry with Kakuei Tanaka, who succeeded Satō as prime minister in 1972 and under whom Fukuda served as finance minister from 1973 to 1974. As prime minister from 1976, Fukuda formulated the Fukuda Doctrine, which pledged trust and cooperation with Asian countries, and concluded the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China in 1978. He was succeeded as premier in 1978 by Masayoshi Ōhira. His son, Yasuo Fukuda, followed him as a politician and served as prime minister from 2007 to 2008.
Early life and education Fukuda was born in the village of Kaneko in Gunma prefecture (present day Takasaki City) on January 14, 1905, the second son to an old samurai family who had been village headmen in the Edo period. His father was the mayor of Kaneko, his grandfather had also been mayor and his older brother eventually filled the same role. Fukuda was a gifted student who went on to First Higher School in Tokyo, followed by studying law at Tokyo Imperial University. He received the top score on the civil service examination and entered the Ministry of Finance upon graduating in 1929.
Bureaucratic career Fukuda was assigned as financial attaché to the embassy of Japan in London in 1930. After three years he was called back to Japan to serve as the head of a local Tax Office. At this time he married Mie Arai, the granddaughter of a Supreme Court justice. The couple came to have three sons and two daughters. Yasuo Fukuda was their eldest son. Fukuda steadily rose in the ranks of the Ministry. During the Pacific War he served as an adviser on fiscal policy for the Wang Jingwei regime.
At the time of the Japanese surrender, Fukuda was chief secretary and head of the Minister's Secretariat. Masayoshi Ohira and Kiichi Miyazawa were his subordinates at that time. He became chief of the Banking Bureau in 1946 and by 1947 he had risen to chief of the Budget Bureau. Fukuda was in line to become administrative vice minister, however in 1948 he was arrested in connection to the Showa Denko scandal, a corruption scandal involving several bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians which precipitated the fall of the Ashida administration. Fukuda was later acquitted, but the incident led him to resign from the Ministry in 1950.
Political career In the 1952 election, Fukuda was elected as an independent to the House of Representatives, representing the third district of Gunma. Fukuda grew close to Nobusuke Kishi, who was making a political comeback. He joined the Liberal Party along with Kishi in 1953 and when Kishi was expelled the following year Fukuda left with him and took part in forming the Democratic Party. Fukada became a prized lieutenant to Kishi. The two parties merged to form the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955. After Kishi became prime minister, Fukuda became chairman of the Policy Research Council in 1958 and secretary-general in January 1959. Fukuda joined the cabinet in June as Minister of Agriculture, remaining until the Kishi was forced to resign as prime minister due to the massive 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security treaty. After that, Hayato Ikeda was elected as LDP president and prime minister with the support of Kishi and his brother Eisaku Satō. Fukuda again became chairman of the Policy Research Council in December 1960. Before long, the alliance between Ikeda, Kishi and Satō began to fray. Satō wanted to succeed Ikeda and Kishi was inclined to support him, but Ikeda intended to have a long-term administration. In the reshuffle of July 1961, Ikeda treated his former opponents Banboku Ōno and Ichirō Kōno generously to balance the influence of Kishi and Satō. Fukuda for his part lost his position as policy chairman. In January 1962, Fukuda formed the "Party Spirit Renovation League" (Tōfū Sasshin Renmei), which became a forum for Diet members to air anti-Ikeda grievances. The Kishi faction began to split between those who opposed or supported Ikeda, led by Fukuda and Shojiro Kawashima respectively. Kishi disbanded the faction in July 1962 and all but the group close to Kawashima joined Fukuda, who became Kishi's de facto successor as factional leader. Satō decided not to stand in the 1962 LDP leadership election and Ikeda successfully ran unopposed, but the 70 or so members of the Party Spirit Renovation League cast blank ballots in protest. In the 1964 leadership election Fukuda strongly supported Satō against Ikeda. Satō was defeated, but soon afterwards Ikeda fell ill and had to resign as prime minister, naming Satō as his successor. Although Fukuda remained locked out of the cabinet during the Ikeda years, his star began to rise again under Satō. Fukuda rose to the prestigious posts of Minister of Finance (1965–66, 1968–71) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1971–72). After Satō's third and final term as prime minister came to an end in 1972, Fukuda ran as a candidate to replace him but lost out to insurgent candidate Kakuei Tanaka. Under Tanaka, Fukuda once again served as Minister of Finance (1973–74), and even when the Tanaka cabinet fell due to a corruption scandal, Fukuda was seen as "clean" and served a stint as Director of the Economic Planning Agency under the ensuing cabinet of Takeo Miki (1974–76).
Premiership (1976–1978)
After the LDP's poor showing in the 1976 election, Miki stepped down as prime minister and Fukuda was elected to replace him. Fukuda remained in office until 1978, but was forced to rely on the support of minor parties to maintain a parliamentary majority. Although he was regarded as a conservative and a hawk on foreign policy, Fukuda drew international criticism when he caved in to the demands of a group of terrorists who hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 472, saying "Jinmei wa chikyū yori omoi (The value of a human life outweighs the Earth)."
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