CONFIDENTIAL
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
MR. EISAKU SATO: RIME MINISTER OF JAPAN
ANNEX B
2.
Born 1901.
Entered the Railways Ministry 1924. Administrative
Vice-Minister at the Railways Ministry 1947. Chief
Cabinet Secretary October 1948-February 1949. Member of
the House of Representatives since 1949. Minister of Posts
July 1951-October 1952. Minister of Construction October
1952-May 1953. Minister of Finance June 1958-June 1960.
Minister of International Trade & Industry July 1961-July
1962. Minister of State July 1963-June 1964. Prime
Minister since November 1964.
3. Brother of former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi.
Former protégé and close associate of Shigeru Yoshida
(Prime Minister at the time of the Peace Treaty of 1951).
When the Liberal Democratic Party was formed in November
1955 he alone, apart from Hashimoto, imitated Yoshida in
remaining outside it, but he joined when Kishi became
Prime Minister. Since then his influence has grown steadily.
In June 1964 he stood unsuccessfully for the Presidency of
the Party, but the following November he was elected
unanimously after the retirement of Ikeda. Though he
formally dissolved his faction in 1964, as a gesture of
"modernization", more than 50 members of the Lower House
owe him allegiance. Outside his own faction Sato's firmest
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CONFIDENTIAL