Eisaku Satō

His father had worked in the Yamaguchi Prefectural Office, but quit in 1898, and started a sake brewing business in Kishida, Tabuse.

The family had a history in sake brewing and had held the right for sake brewing for generations.

Sato's great-grandfather was a samurai of the Chōshū Domain, with their outsized influence in Meiji era Japan, with more Meiji and Taisho prime ministers coming from Yamaguchi than any other prefecture.

Satō was born on 27 March 1901, in Tabuse, Yamaguchi Prefecture, the third son of businessman Hidesuke Satō and his wife Moyo.

Satō studied German law at Tokyo Imperial University and in 1923, passed the senior civil service examinations.

Upon graduation the following year, he became a civil servant in the Ministry of Railways.

He served as Director of the Osaka Railways Bureau from 1944 to 1946 and Vice-Minister for Transport from 1947 to 1948.

Satō entered the National Diet in 1949 as a member of the Liberal Party.

Gradually rising through the ranks of Japanese politics, he held a series of cabinet positions.

Satō entered the Diet in 1949 as a member of the Liberal Party.

He served as Minister of Postal Services and Telecommunications from July 1951 to July 1952.

He later served as minister of construction from October 1952 to February 1953.

Sato gradually rose through the ranks of Japanese politics, becoming chief cabinet secretary to then prime minister Shigeru Yoshida from January 1953 to July 1954.

His two older brothers were Ichirō Satō, who would become a vice admiral, and Nobusuke Kishi, who served as prime minister from 1957-1960.

After the Liberal Party merged with the Japan Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democratic Party, Satō served as chairman of the party executive council from December 1957 to June 1958, followed by a post as minister of finance in the cabinet of his brother Nobusuke Kishi from 1958-1960.

As minister of finance, Sato requested the US to fund conservatives.

Satō also served in the cabinets of Kishi's successor as prime minister, Hayato Ikeda.

He would go on to serve the longest stint of any prime minister up until that time, and by the late 1960s he appeared to have single-handed control over the entire Japanese government.

He was a popular prime minister due to the growing economy; his foreign policy, which was a balancing act between the interests of the United States and China, was more tenuous.

Student political radicalization led to numerous protests against Satō's support of the United States–Japan Security Treaty, and Japanese tacit support for American military operations in Vietnam.

From July 1961 to July 1962, Satō was Minister of International Trade and Industry.

From July 1963 to June 1964 he was concurrently head of the Hokkaidō Development Agency and of the Science and Technology Agency.

Satō succeeded Ikeda after the latter resigned due to ill health.

Eisaku Satō (佐藤 栄作) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1964 to 1972.

He is the third longest-serving prime minister, and ranks second in longest uninterrupted service as prime minister.

In 1964 he succeeded Hayato Ikeda as prime minister, becoming the first prime minister to have been born in the 20th century.

As prime minister, Satō presided over a period of rapid economic growth.

He arranged for the formal return of Okinawa (Ryukyu Islands; occupied by the United States since the end of the Second World War) to Japanese control.

In 1965, Satō approved a US$150 million loan to Taiwan.

On 22 June 1965, the Satō government and South Korea under Park Chung Hee signed the Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea, which normalized relations between Japan and South Korea for the first time.

Relations with Japan had previously not been officially established since Korea's decolonization and division at the end of World War II.

He visited Taipei in September 1967.

This opposition peaked with the 1968–1969 Japanese university protests, which eventually forced Satō to close the prestigious University of Tokyo for a year in 1969.

After three terms as prime minister, Satō decided not to run for a fourth.

His heir apparent, Takeo Fukuda, won the Sato faction's support in the subsequent Diet elections, but the more popular MITI minister, Kakuei Tanaka, won the vote, ending the Satō faction's dominance.

Satō is the last Prime minister of Japan to visit Taiwan during his term.

In 1969, Satō insisted that the defense of Taiwan was necessary for the safety of Japan.

Satō followed the United States in most major issues, but Satō opposed the Nixon visit to China.

Satō also bitterly opposed the entry of the PRC into the United Nations in 1971.

Satō brought Japan into the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize as a co-recipient in 1974.