Former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, the first son of a prime minister to hold the office himself, died on Thursday at 90 from heart failure, the Nikkei reported on Monday.
Former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda has died at the age of 90, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday. Fukuda, who led Japan in 2007 and 2008, was the first son of a prime minister to become premier himself.
The Nikkei said Fukuda died on Thursday from heart failure. He became prime minister after the sudden resignation of Shinzo Abe in 2007 and lasted less than a year, a shorter tenure than his father Takeo Fukuda's two years in office in the late 1970s.
Fukuda graduated in economics from Waseda University and spent nearly two decades at an oil company, including two years in the United States, before becoming his father's political secretary in 1976. He was elected to Japan's lower house in 1990 and served as chief cabinet secretary from 2000 to 2004, resigning after admitting he had not paid into the pension system, as had several other cabinet ministers.
The report of his death rests on the Nikkei account carried by Reuters, which gives Thursday as the day of death and heart failure as the cause. No family statement was included in the Reuters report, and the date and place of death are consistent with Fukuda's biographical record, which lists 22 October 2026 in Tokyo. His reputation as a diplomatic dove rests on his own record: he sought closer ties with Asian neighbours in office and made several visits to China after leaving office.
Fukuda's brief premiership sits in a period of rapid turnover in Japanese leadership, and he resigned in 2008 frustrated by a divided parliament that could delay legislation. He leaves a son, Tatsuo, who is also a lawmaker and has been viewed as a potential future prime minister. Tributes and funeral arrangements had not been reported in the Reuters account at the time of publication.