Tamisuke Watanuki

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.

Tamisuke Watanuki
綿貫 民輔
Watanuki in 2009
Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office 4 July 2000 – 10 October 2003
Monarch	Akihito
Deputy	Kōzō Watanabe
Preceded by	Sōichirō Itō
Succeeded by	Yōhei Kōno
Minister of Construction
In office 28 February 1990 – 29 December 1990
Prime Minister	Toshiki Kaifu
Preceded by	Shōzō Harada
Succeeded by	Yūji Ōtsuka
Director-General of the National Land Agency
In office 22 July 1986 – 6 November 1987
Prime Minister	Yasuhiro Nakasone
Preceded by	Heihachirō Yamazaki
Succeeded by	Seisuke Okuno
Director-General of the Hokkaido Development Agency and the Okinawa Development Agency
In office 22 July 1986 – 6 November 1987
Prime Minister	Yasuhiro Nakasone
Preceded by	Raishirō Koga
Succeeded by	Shigeru Kasuya
Personal details
Born	(1927-04-30) April 30, 1927 (age 97) Nanto, Toyama, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic Party (1969–2005) People's New Party (2005–2013)
Alma mater	Keio University

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]

References

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.)

House of Representatives (Japan)
Preceded by Hiroyuki Masuoka	Chair, Committee on Financial Affairs of the House of Representatives 1980–1981	Succeeded by Yoshirō Mori
Preceded by Chūbun Hatano	Chair, Committee on Judicial Affairs of the House of Representatives 1982–1983	Succeeded by Moichi Miyazaki
Preceded by Ichirō Ozawa	Chair, Committee on Rules and Administration of the House of Representatives 1986	Succeeded by Ihei Ochi
Preceded by Sōichirō Itō	Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan 2000–2003	Succeeded by Yōhei Kōno
Political offices
Preceded by Raishirō Koga	Head of the Hokkaido Development Agency 1986–1987	Succeeded by Shigeru Kasuya
Preceded by Heihachirō Yamazaki	Head of the National Land Agency 1986–1987	Succeeded by Seisuke Okuno
Preceded by Raishirō Koga	Head of the Okinawa Development Agency 1986–1987	Succeeded by Shigeru Kasuya
Preceded by Shōzō Harada	Minister of Construction 1990	Succeeded by Yūji Ōtsuka
Party political offices
Preceded by Keizō Obuchi	Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party 1991–1992	Succeeded by Seiroku Kajiyama
Preceded by Keizō Obuchi	Head of Heisei Kenkyūkai 1998–2000	Succeeded by Ryūtarō Hashimoto
Preceded by Party established	President of the People's New Party (Kokuminshintō) 2005–2009	Succeeded by Shizuka Kamei