羽田 孜

Hata Tsutomu was the prime minister of Japan from April to June, 1994. He was born on August 24, 1935 in Tokyo, to a family said to be descended from the first Qin emperor of China. He graduated from Seijo University, and took a job at the Odakyu bus company in 1958, where he would work for the next decade.

In 1969, he entered the Diet's House of Representatives, representing Nagano Prefecture as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He became known as a plain-spoken, Harry Truman-sort-of-character, and remained popular with his constituency well into the nineties, by which point he had held several cabinet posts under LDP prime ministers. Then, Hata left the LDP in 1993, saying that the party had become too corrupt to rule. He founded his own party, the Shinseito, and joined Hosokawa Morihiro's anti-LDP coalition. Hosokawa appointed Hata as foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the first non-LDP government since 1955.

Amid (ironically enough) accusations of corruption, Hosokawa resigned in 1994, and Hata succeeded him. However, the Social Democratic Party of Japan had left the coalition, giving it only minority support in the Diet. Rather than facing a vote of no confidence, Hata decided to resign only two months into his administration.

The Shinseito became the Shinshinto in 1996, and Hata lost its leadership to Ozawa Ichiro. He subsequently joined the Democratic Party of Japan, where he is now a "supreme advisor" to the leadership of Kan Naoto.

Hata's son, Hata Yuichiro, was born in 1967 and is now a member of the House of Councillors.

Hata Tsutomu wears 26.5 cm shoes. His golf handicap is 22, and his favorite color is blue. (brought to you by http://www.t-hata.net/ )

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