1924- . Japanese right-wing politician.
Elected to parliament as a Liberal Democratic
Party (LDP) deputy 1958, he became president
of the LDP and prime minister Oct 1987. He
and members of his administration were shown
in the Recruit scandal to have been involved
in insider-trading and in Apr 1989 he
resigned. Takeshita, the son of a sake
brewer, trained as a kamikaze pilot during
World War II. He was a schoolteacher before
beginning his political career in the House
of Representatives, rising to chief cabinet
secretary to Prime Minister Sato 1971-72 and
finance minister under Nakasone. As prime
minister he introduced a furusato (home-town)
project giving 3,200 towns and villages a
grant of 100 million yen ( 500,000) each.
This benefited construction companies, who
are among the main backers of Takeshita's LDP
faction. The Recruit scandal and the
introduction of a tax-reform bill including a
consumption tax 1988 caused popular approval
of Takeshita's government to drop
dramatically. His profits from Recruit shares
were revealed to be almost 900,000, and in
atonement his closest aide committed suicide.