Japan's Former Lower House Speaker Watanuki Dies at 99
Tokyo, Aug. 24 (Jiji Press)--Former Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Tamisuke Watanuki died of old age at a Tokyo medical institution on Tuesday last week. He was 99. Born in the central prefecture of Toyama, Watanuki was elected to the Diet, Japan's parliament, for the first time in the 1969 Lower House election as a Liberal Democratic Party candidate from the former No. 2 constit...
Former Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Tamisuke Watanuki passed away at the age of 99 on August 24th, according to Jiji Press. Watanuki was born in Toyama, a central prefecture in Japan. He was first elected to the Diet, or parliament, in the 1969 Lower House election as a candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from the former No. 2 constituency in Toyama. He went on to be elected 13 times consecutively.
Watanuki entered the cabinet for the first time as the director-general of the National Land Agency in 1986 during the tenure of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. He also held various other positions, including construction minister and LDP secretary-general.
Watanuki served as the Lower House speaker from 2000 to 2003. In 2005, he engaged in a significant dispute with then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi over the privatization of the country's postal services. As the chairman of a group of LDP lawmakers closely associated with the postal sector, Watanuki voted against the postal service privatization bill.
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