Ammon News - Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who used his brief period in office to seek closer ties with Asian neighbours, particularly ​China, has died at the age of 90, the Nikkei ‌business daily reported on Monday.

The Japanese politician, the first son of a prime minister to become premier himself, died on Thursday from heart failure, the Nikkei ​said.

Becoming prime minister on the sudden resignation of Shinzo Abe in 2007, ​Fukuda lasted less than a year — a tenure even shorter ⁠than his father Takeo's two-year stint.

A graduate in economics from Tokyo's ​prestigious Waseda University, Fukuda spent nearly two decades working his way up ​the ranks of an oil company — including a two-year posting in the United States — before resigning to become a political secretary when his father became premier in 1976.

Elected ​to Japan's more powerful lower house of parliament in 1990, Fukuda was ​chief cabinet secretary from 2000 to 2004, resigning as one of several cabinet ministers ‌to ⁠admit not paying into the pension system.


Reuters