Former Lower House Speaker Watanuki dies at 99

Former Lower House Speaker Tamisuke Watanuki died of old age at a Tokyo medical institution on Tuesday last week. He was 99.

Born in Toyama Prefecture, Watanuki was elected to parliament for the first time in the 1969 Lower House election as a Liberal Democratic Party candidate from the former No. 2 constituency in Toyama. He went on to be elected 13 times in a row.

He entered the Cabinet for the first time as director-general of the now-defunct National Land Agency in 1986 under then-Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.

Watanuki also served in such posts as construction minister and LDP secretary-general. He was Lower House speaker between 2000 and 2003.

In 2005, Watanuki had a serious confrontation with then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi over the privatization of the country’s postal services. As chairman of a group of LDP lawmakers with close ties to the postal sector, Watanuki voted against the postal service privatization bill.

In the general election following the dissolution of the Lower House by Koizumi over the postal service privatization, Watanuki was unable to receive the LDP’s endorsement. He then formed the now-defunct People’s New Party with anti-postal privatization lawmakers and became its first leader, after being expelled from the LDP.

After losing his seat in the 2009 Lower House election, he later became the first parliament member to be allowed to rejoin the LDP after being expelled.

He was born into a family of Shinto priests at Inami Hachimangu Shrine in Toyama and had served as chief priest of the centuries-old shrine.

Nicknamed “Tami-san,” he built a wide network in the political world.