Fukuda, Yasuo, << foo koo dah, yah soo oh >> (1936-…), was prime minister of Japan and head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from September 2007 to September 2008. He succeeded Shinzo Abe, who had stepped down as prime minister and head of the LDP earlier in September 2007.
Fukuda was born on July 16, 1936. His family home was in Takasaki, in the central part of Honshu, Japan’s largest island. He graduated from the School of Politics and Economics at Waseda University in Tokyo in 1959. He later worked for an oil company.
Fukuda’s father, Takeo Fukuda, was a prominent LDP politician who served as prime minister from 1976 to 1978. Yasuo, like many leading LDP politicians of his generation, was groomed to take over his father’s electoral seat. Yasuo Fukuda quit his job in 1976 and served as chief secretary to his father from 1977 to 1978.
In 1990, Yasuo Fukuda was elected to the House of Representatives in Japan’s national legislature, the Diet. He represented his father’s former electoral district in Gunma Prefecture. From 2000 to 2004, under the prime ministers Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi, he served as chief Cabinet secretary, a post responsible for overseeing the administrative operations of the Cabinet.
In contrast to the LDP prime ministers who immediately preceded and followed him, Fukuda emphasized improving relations with countries whose ties with Japan had become strained. His government suffered from low approval ratings, and he resigned after serving for just under a year.
