Yasuo Fukuda, Japan's First Second-Generation Prime Minister, Dies at 90

Yasuo Fukuda, who served as prime minister of Japan for a year from September 2007, has died at the age of 90. The Nikkei business daily reported on Monday that Fukuda died of heart failure on Thursday, October 22, and an official of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party confirmed his death to AFP the same day. Xinhua reported that he died of heart failure at a hospital in Tokyo.

Fukuda was the first son of a Japanese prime minister to become prime minister himself. His father, Takeo Fukuda, led Japan in the late 1970s. Yasuo Fukuda was born on July 16, 1936, in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, and graduated from Waseda University, where he studied economics.

A long road to the top job

Fukuda spent nearly two decades working at an oil company, including a two year posting in the United States, before he resigned to become a political secretary to his father when Takeo Fukuda became prime minister in 1976. He was elected to the House of Representatives, the more powerful lower house of parliament, in 1990.

He served as chief cabinet secretary from 2000 to 2004, under prime ministers Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi, and resigned in 2004 as one of several cabinet ministers who admitted they had not paid into the pension system. Reuters also reported that he drew criticism in 2003 for off the record comments in which he suggested that women who dressed provocatively were asking to be raped.

Fukuda became prime minister in September 2007, after Shinzo Abe resigned suddenly at the end of his first term. He took office with parliament divided and opposition parties able to delay legislation, and he joked at the time that he might have drawn the short straw. Frustrated with the stalled legislative process and falling approval ratings, he resigned in September 2008, after less than a year in office.

The push for stable ties with China

Fukuda used his time in office to seek closer ties with Asian neighbours, particularly China. In May 2008 he hosted Chinese President Hu Jintao on a state visit, the first by a Chinese head of state to Japan in a decade. The two leaders issued a joint statement committing their countries to a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests, and signed the fourth political document between China and Japan.

He kept working on the relationship after he left office and retired from parliament in 2012. As ties between Tokyo and Beijing worsened over a disputed island chain and other historical issues, Fukuda travelled to China in 2014 and held talks with President Xi Jinping, a meeting that helped pave the way for a summit between Xi and Abe later that year. He also visited the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre and served for many years as chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Monday that China expresses deep condolences over Fukuda's passing. "Mr. Yasuo Fukuda was an old friend of the Chinese people and made positive contributions to promoting the improvement and development of China-Japan relations," Guo told a news briefing, according to AFP.

Fukuda is survived by his son Tatsuo, who is also a lawmaker and has been viewed as a potential future prime minister.