Tsutomu Hata

Tsutomu Hata (羽田 孜, Hata Tsutomu^?, born August 24, 1935) is a Japanese politician and was the 80th Prime Minister of Japan for 9 weeks in 1994.^[1]

He was born in Tokyo, a son of the Liberal Democratic Party Member of Parliament Bushiro Hata. Hata graduated from Seijo University and was employed by the Odakyu bus company from 1958 to 1969. In 1969, he entered the House of Representatives of Japan, representing Nagano Prefecture as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He rose to become a top lieutenant in the Tanaka/Takeshita faction in the 1980s.

In 1991, he served as Minister of Finance under Kiichi Miyazawa. He left the LDP in 1993 to found the Japan Renewal Party with longtime LDP ally Ichirō Ozawa, which became part of Morihiro Hosokawa's anti-LDP coalition government later that year. Hata served as foreign minister in the Hosokawa cabinet.

On April 28, 1994, Hosokawa resigned and Hata became prime minister. However, the Japan Socialist Party had recently left the coalition, destroying its majority in the Diet. Rather than face a vote of no confidence, Hata elected to resign in June, allowing SDP leader Tomiichi Murayama to take over the position on June 30.

After the Shinseito merged into the Shinshinto in 1996, Hata contested the leadership against Ichiro Ozawa. After losing this contest, he and twelve other Diet members formed the splinter Sun Party (太陽党 Taiyōtō). The Sun Party in January 1998 became a part of the Good Governance Party which itself was subsumed by the Democratic Party of Japan in April 1998. Hata remains with the DPJ where he is currently "supreme advisor" to chairman Ichirō Ozawa.

Hata's son, Yuichiro, is a member of the House of Councillors of Japan.

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