Tamisuke Watanuki

Tamisuke Watanuki
綿貫 民輔
Watanuki in 2009
Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office
4 July 2000 – 10 October 2003
Preceded bySōichirō Itō
Succeeded byYōhei Kōno
Minister of Construction
In office
28 February 1990 – 29 December 1990
Prime MinisterToshiki Kaifu
Preceded byShōzō Harada
Succeeded byYūji Ōtsuka
Director-General of the National Land Agency
In office
22 July 1986 – 6 November 1987
Prime MinisterYasuhiro Nakasone
Preceded byHeihachirō Yamazaki
Succeeded bySeisuke Okuno
Director-General of the Hokkaido Development Agency and the Okinawa Development Agency
In office
22 July 1986 – 6 November 1987
Prime MinisterYasuhiro Nakasone
Preceded byRaishirō Koga
Succeeded byShigeru Kasuya
Personal details
Born (1927-04-30) April 30, 1927 (age 97)
Nanto, Toyama, Japan
Political partyLiberal Democratic Party (1969–2005)
People's New Party (2005–2013)
Alma materKeio University

Tamisuke Watanuki (綿貫 民輔, Watanuki Tamisuke, born 30 April 1927) is a Japanese politician from the Toyama Prefecture. He started his own export-import company at age 28.

He graduated from the Department of Economics at Keio University and ran for the Prefectural Assembly in 1959. He was elected to the Diet in 1969 as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.[1]

He served as Vice Minister of International Trade and Industry in 1975 in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Miki, and as Vice Minister of the Post Office under Prime Minister Fukuda, as well as some other cabinet positions through the 1980s. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives from July 2000 to November 2003.[2]

He vigorously opposed Prime Minister Koizumi's plan to privatize the national post office and formed the People's New Party in 2005 to oppose the plan.[3] Although Koizumi's party handily won a strong majority in the elections on 11 September 2005, Watanuki crushed the challenger in his district.[4]

  1. ^ Watanuki's official website [dead link] Archived 2010-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ An article in the Japan Times.
  3. ^ A report on the postal reform.
  4. ^ A report on the 2005 Upper House Elections. (Note: This report is entitled as UPPER House Election, which is wrong. This is a LOWER House Election.)