Sunao Sonoda

Sunao Sonoda
園田 直
Sonoda at Schiphol in July 1979
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office 18 May 1981 – 30 November 1981
Prime Minister	Zenkō Suzuki
Preceded by	Masayoshi Ito
Succeeded by	Yoshio Sakurauchi
Minister of Health and Welfare
In office 19 September 1980 – 18 May 1981
Prime Minister	Zenkō Suzuki
Preceded by	Kunikichi Saitō
Succeeded by	Tatsuo Murayama
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office 28 November 1977 – 9 November 1979
Prime Minister	Takeo Fukuda Masayoshi Ohira
Preceded by	Iichirō Hatoyama
Succeeded by	Saburo Okita
Chief Cabinet Secretary
In office 24 December 1976 – 28 November 1977
Prime Minister	Takeo Fukuda
Preceded by	Ichitaro Ide
Succeeded by	Shintaro Abe
Minister of Health and Welfare
In office 25 November 1967 – 30 November 1968
Prime Minister	Eisaku Satō
Preceded by	Hideo Bō
Succeeded by	Noboru Saitō
Personal details
Born	11 December 1913 Amakusa, Kumamoto, Empire of Japan
Died	2 April 1984(1984-04-02) (aged 70) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic Party
Spouse	Tenkoko Sonoda
Children	Hiroyuki Sonoda
Military career
Allegiance	Japan
Service / branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1935–1945
Rank	Captain
Battles / wars	Second Sino-Japanese War Second World War

Sunao Sonoda (園田 直, Sonoda Sunao, 11 December 1913 – 2 April 1984) was Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) who served as minister for foreign affairs and minister of health and welfare. He was called "flying foreign minister" due to his active diplomacy in increasing the role of Japan when he was in office.^[1] He was one of the significant figures in normalizing the relations between Japan and China.^[2]