Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu (R) and U.S. President George Bush pictured ahead of their meeting in California, April 4, 1991
Photo by Takeshi Fujihara/The Yomiuri Shimbun via Reuters Connect
January 24, 2022
A Japanese politician who played an important part in the history of U.S.-Japan relations died recently, and chances are you’ve never heard of him. Kaifu Toshiki was Japan’s prime minister from 1989 to 1991, a critical time in U.S.-Japan relations as the world was transitioning from the Cold War to the fog that lay beyond. His administration, which became consumed by the Gulf War, carries more importance for the current state of the U.S.-Japan alliance than it is often given credit.
Kaifu was the first prime minister born in the Showa Era, the period stretching from 1926 to 1989. When he became premier in August 1989, he was quite frankly, an unlikely choice. Not only was he from the smallest faction in the LDP (Komoto faction), he was not even its head; rather, he was third in line in terms of seniority. Moreover, he did not have as much experience as his predecessors had before becoming premier; his only relevant cabinet experience was being a two-time education minister.
And yet, he offered his party the promise of a fresh start. This is because prior to his unlikely rise to the premiership, his LDP had been rocked by a stocks-for-favors scandal, a sex scandal that pushed Kaifu’s immediate predecessor from office and an unpopular consumption tax that led to a historic defeat of the LDP in the July 1989 Upper House elections. Kaifu, youthful at 58 and known for being nonconfrontational, was not connected to any of these issues. Party elites saw Kaifu as able to lead a caretaker government until the public was in a more-forgiving mood. There was no expectation that he would push Japan in new directions.
Kaifu’s administration carries more importance for the current state of the U.S.-Japan alliance than it is often given credit.Share on Twitter
But history had other plans, and Kaifu stepped into his role in ways no one expected, even leading his party to a massive electoral victory in the February 1990 Lower House election. Domestically, his approval ratings were the highest of any postwar leader up until that time. Abroad, he concluded Structural Impediments Initiative talks with U.S. President George H.W. Bush and walked tall with other global leaders at the 1990 G7 Summit. And then, at the zenith of his popularity, the Gulf War broke out.
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