▲ Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda
Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who is evaluated to have strived to improve relations with Asian countries such as South Korea and China, has passed away.
According to Kyodo News, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), and other reports on October 26, the Liberal Democratic Party announced that former Prime Minister Fukuda passed away from heart failure at a hospital in Tokyo on October 22.
The late former prime minister took office in September 2007 and served a one-year term until September 2008.
As the son of former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, he set a record as Japan's first father-and-son prime ministers in constitutional history.
During his political career, he was considered a dove within the Liberal Democratic Party who emphasized the importance of diplomacy with Asia.
Shortly after taking office, when asked by reporters about visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, he responded, "Is there any need to do things that the other party dislikes?"
When then-Chinese President Hu Jintao visited in 2008, he agreed to develop a "strategic mutually beneficial relationship."
He entered politics after being elected from the former Gunma 3rd district in the 1990 House of Representatives election at the age of 53, and was subsequently elected seven consecutive times.
In 2000, he entered the cabinet for the first time after taking office as Chief Cabinet Secretary in the cabinet of Yoshiro Mori.
In 2008, former Prime Minister Fukuda held a summit with then-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and emphasized the establishment of future-oriented South Korea-Japan relations.
Even after retiring from politics in 2012 by not running in the House of Representatives election, he was evaluated to have sought out clues to improve the then-chilled China-Japan relations.
In 2014, he visited China and met with President Xi Jinping, and was evaluated for having laid the groundwork for a summit with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
(Photo provided by Jeju Forum Secretariat, Yonhap News)
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