Yasuhiro Nakasone

File:1919. Yasuhiro Nakasone.JPG

Nakasone was born in Takasaki in Gunma, a prefecture northwest of Tokyo, on 27 May 1918.{{cite book|last=Lentz|first=Harris M.|title=Heads of States and Governments Since 1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6HKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA464|date=4 February 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-26490-2|page=464}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/world/asia/30nakasone.html|title=Japan's Elder Statesman Is Silent No Longer|first=Martin|last=Fackler|page=A11|work=The New York Times|date=29 January 2010|access-date=30 January 2010}} He was the second son of Nakasone Matsugoro II, a lumber dealer, and Nakamura Yuku. He had five siblings: an elder brother named Kichitaro, an elder sister named Shoko, a younger brother named Ryosuke and another younger brother and younger sister who both died in childhood.{{cite book|title=The Making of the New Japan|date=6 March 2015|publisher=Curzon Press|isbn=978-0-7007-1246-5|page=14}} The Nakasone family had been of the samurai class during the Edo period, and claimed direct descent from the Minamoto clan through the famous Minamoto no Yoshimitsu and through his son Minamoto no Yoshikiyo (d. 1149). According to family records, Tsunayoshi (k. 1417), a vassal of the Takeda clan and a tenth-generation descendant of Yoshikiyo, took the name of Nakasone Juro and was killed at the Battle of Sagamigawa.{{cite book|title=The Making of the New Japan|year=2015|publisher=Curzon Press|isbn=978-0-7007-1246-5|pages=1–2}} In about 1590, the samurai Nakasone Sōemon Mitsunaga settled in the town of {{interlanguage link|Satomimura|ja|里見村 (群馬県)}} in Kōzuke Province. His descendants became silk merchants and pawnbrokers. Nakasone's father, originally born Nakasone Kanichi, settled in Takasaki in 1912 and established a timber business and lumberyard which had success as a result of the post-WWI building boom.

Nakasone described his early childhood and youth as a happy one, and himself as a "quiet, easy-going child" nicknamed "Yat-chan". He attended a local primary school in Takasaki and was a poor student until the fourth grade, after which he excelled and was at the top of his class. He entered Shizuoka Higher School in 1935, where he excelled in history and literature, and learned to speak fluent French.{{cite book|title=The Making of the New Japan|date=6 March 2015|publisher=Curzon Press|isbn=978-0-7007-1246-5|pages=6–13}}

In the autumn of 1938, Nakasone entered the Faculty of Law of the Imperial University of Tokyo. During his time at the university, he was strongly influenced by {{Interlanguage link|Teiji Yabe|ja|矢部貞治}}, whose lectures on politics fascinated him. He also developed the belief that personality should not be used as a means to achieve something, which contributed to his strong anti-communist and anti-Nazi views.{{Cite news |last=Nakasone |first=Yasuhiro |date=1992-01-06 |title=私の履歴書 第五回 一心不乱 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZZO52769180Z21C19A1000000/ |access-date=2025-01-26 |work=The Nikkei |pages=36}} On the night of 10 March 1940, he received a phone call from his father telling him that his mother in Takasaki had fallen seriously ill. By the time he arrived in Takasaki on the first train the next morning, she had already passed away. The fact that his mother had not told him about her illness, so as not to distract him from his studies, became an impetus for him to work harder. He passed the high-level bureaucrat recruitment examination. He began working for the Home Ministry, which was as prestigious as the Ministry of Finance due to its extensive authority.File:Nakasone Yasuhiro in Imperial Japanese Navy.JPG]]Nakasone applied for the Navy's programme that allowed graduates from elite universities to serve as officers for two years without rising through the ranks. After completing a training period at the Navy Paymaster's School in Tsukiji, he became a lieutenant. With 2,000 staff under his command, ranging from young doctors and scholars to elderly ex-convicts, Nakasone departed the naval base at Kure on 29 November 1941 on a mission to build airfields. Aboard his ship, he struggled to issue effective orders to his staff and ultimately selected an ex-yakuza with eight convictions as his assistant to relay his commands. In January 1942, he arrived at Balikpapan in Dutch East Indies, where his unit was raided by a retreating Dutch cruiser.{{cite news |last1=Kotler |first1=Mindy |title=The Comfort Women and Japan's War on Truth (Published 2014) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/opinion/comfort-women-and-japans-war-on-truth.html |work=The New York Times |date=14 November 2014}}{{cite news |title=『報道特集』 がついに中曽根元首相の「土人女を集め慰安所開設」文書を報道！ 息子の弘文が慰安婦否定の責任者ってなんの冗談？ |url=https://lite-ra.com/i/2015/07/post-1323-entry.html |access-date=15 October 2020 |work=本と雑誌のニュースサイト／リテラ |issue=July 2017 |publisher=LITERA}} On the beach, he cremated the first 23 casualties among his staff, including his ex-yakuza assistant. This experience left a deep and lasting impression, which profoundly influenced his political beliefs.{{Cite news |last=Nakasone |first=Yasuhiro |date=1992-01-09 |title=私の履歴書 第八回 戦友を焼く ーー 空襲に腹固めあぐら |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZZO52769180Z21C19A1000000/ |work=The Nikkei |pages=36}} There, he realized that the construction of the airfield had been stalled due to the prevalence of sexual crimes, gambling, and other problems among his men, so he gathered comfort women and organized a brothel called “comfort station” as a solution. He managed to procure four Indonesian women, and a Navy report praised him for having “mitigated the mood of his troops". Nakasone married Tsutako Kobayashi, the daughter of geologist Giichiro Kobayashi, on 11 February 1945. A fortnight later, he lost his younger brother, Ryosuke, in an air accident.{{Cite news |last=Yasuhiro |first=Nakasone |date=1992-01-10 |title=私の履歴書 第九回 結婚 同僚の妹、お使いが縁 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZZO52769180Z21C19A1000000/ |access-date=2025-01-26 |work=The Nikkei |pages=40}}

Upon returning to Tokyo after the end of the Second World War, he resumed his suspended career at the Home Ministry. He observed the growing prevalence of communism among the Japanese people, but the Civil Service was largely powerless to address it under the absolute authority of the Allied Occupation Forces. While supervising the police force in Kagawa Prefecture, he decided to abandon his bureaucratic career and stand in the upcoming general election.{{Cite news |last=Nakasone |first=Yasuhiro |date=1992-01-12 |title=私の履歴書 第十一回 初当選 白い自転車駆り演説 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZZO52769180Z21C19A1000000/ |work=The Nikkei}} He later wrote of his return to Tokyo in August 1945 after Japan's surrender: "I stood vacantly amid the ruins of Tokyo, after discarding my officer's short sword and removing the epaulettes of my uniform. As I looked around me, I swore to resurrect my homeland from the ashes of defeat".{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Harvey|title=The Undefeated: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Greater Japan|location=London|publisher=Macmillan|date=1994|page=362}}

File:Nobusuke Kishi Cabinet 19590618.jpg in 1959. He can be seen at the centre of the fourth row from the front.]]

He stand in the 1949 general election as a Democratic Party candidate. He campaigned on a nationalist platform, arguing for an enlarged Self-Defence Force, to amend Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution (which outlawed war as a means to settling international disputes), and to revive Japanese patriotism, especially in reverence for the Emperor.Harvey, p. 362. He entered the Japanese Diet as a member of the House of Representatives for the Democratic Party.{{cite web|url=http://www.senkyo.janjan.jp/election/1947/99/000733/00000733_2931.html|title=The Senkyo, 23rd election of the House of Representatives, Gunma's 3rd district|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070309085050/http://www.senkyo.janjan.jp/election/1947/99/000733/00000733_2931.html|archive-date=9 March 2007}} "As a freshman lawmaker in 1951, he delivered a 28-page letter to General MacArthur criticising the occupation, a brazen move. The General angrily threw the letter in [the] bin, Yasuhiro was later told. This stand established [Yasuhiro Nakasone's] credentials as a right-wing politician." He gained brief notoriety in 1952 for blaming Emperor Hirohito for Japan's defeat in the war.Bix, H.P. Hirohito, 2000. page 649. In 1955, at Nakasone's urging, the government granted the equivalent of $14,000,000 to the Agency for Industrial Science and Technology to begin nuclear power research.Daniel P. Aldrich, [http://www.tnr.com/article/world/85463/japan-nuclear-power-regulation With a Mighty Hand], New Republic Nakasone rose through the LDP's ranks, becoming Minister of Science in 1959 under the government of Nobusuke Kishi, then Minister of Transport in 1967, Director General of the Japan Defense Agency from 1970 to 1971, Minister of International Trade and Industry in 1972 and Minister of Administration in 1981.

As the head of the Self-Defence Force, Nakasone argued for an increase in defence spending from less than 1% GNP to 3% of GNP. He was also in favour of Japan having tactical nuclear weapons.Harvey, p. 363. He was labelled "the weathervane" in 1972 because he switched his support from Takeo Fukuda to Kakuei Tanaka in the leadership election, ensuring Tanaka's victory. In turn, Tanaka would give his powerful support to Nakasone against Fukuda a decade later in the fight for the premiership.

{{seealso|First Nakasone Cabinet|Second Nakasone Cabinet|Third Nakasone Cabinet}}

In 1982, Nakasone became prime minister. Along with Minister of Foreign Affairs Shintaro Abe, Nakasone improved Japanese relations with the USSR and the People's Republic of China. Nakasone was best known for his close relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, popularly called the "Ron-Yasu" friendship. Nakasone sought a more equal relationship with the United States, and said: "President Reagan is the pitcher and I'm the catcher. When the pitcher gives the signs, I'll co-operate unsparingly, but if he doesn't sometimes follow the catcher's signs, the game can't be won".Harvey, p. 365. Nakasone said Japan would be "America's unsinkable aircraft carrier" in the Pacific and that Japan would "keep complete control of the four straits that go through to Japanese islands, to prevent the passage of Soviet submarines". He was attacked by political opponents as a reactionary and a "dangerous militarist". Nakasone responded by saying: "A nation must shed any sense of ignominy and move forward seeking glory". However his attempt to amend Article 9 failed.

In 1984, Nakasone visited China on the twelfth anniversary of Japan's diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic, for which the Chinese government arranged tours of China for 3,000 Japanese youths. On the trip, Nakasone's son was privately accompanied by the daughter of Hu Yaobang, the-then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. After the event, Hu was criticised by other members of the Chinese Communist Party for the extravagance and warmth of the event.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1jlOQc8BumIC&pg=PA315|title=Pioneers of Modern China: Understanding the Inscrutable Chinese|last=Lee|first=Khoon Choy|location=Singapore|publisher=World Scientific Publishing|date=2005|page=311|isbn=981-256-464-0}} Nakasone also visited President Corazon Aquino in a series of talks between the Philippines and Japan during a special state visit from 1986 to 1987, to provide good economic and trade relations.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/11/11/japan-promises-aquino-aid/414fd31c-a6f8-4ba7-9088-f9f33d12ea07/|title=Japan Promises Aquino Aid|last=Burgess|first=John|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=11 November 1986|access-date=30 November 2019}}{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/11/14/aquino-ends-visit-to-japan/ded4943a-5153-4554-a910-f8876cebf989/|title=Aquino Ends Visit to Japan|last=Burgess|first=John|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=14 November 1986|access-date=30 November 2019}}

In economic affairs, Nakasone's most notable policy was his privatisation initiative, which led to the breakup of Japan National Railways into the modern Japan Railways Group (JR). This led to 80,000 redundancies, unheard of in Japan until that point.Harvey, p. 369. He also privatized Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation and Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation to create Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) and Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT).{{cite web|url=https://www.jiji.com/jc/v6?id=sonotoki12&a=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726043520/https://www.jiji.com/jc/v6?id=sonotoki12&a=1|script-title=ja:中曽根康弘|language=ja|publisher=Jiji Press|archive-date=26 July 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://www.jil.go.jp/institute/research/2008/documents/046/046_01.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904105326/https://www.jil.go.jp/institute/research/2008/documents/046/046_01.pdf|script-title=ja:調査の目的と民営化の動向 |pages=5, 12–14|language=ja|publisher=Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training|archive-date=4 September 2021}} The privatization of the three public corporations reduced the number of employees and significantly improved ordinary income per employee, productivity, and sales. According to a report by Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training, 20 years after the privatization of NTT and JT and 16 years after the privatization of JR, the number of employees was reduced to 35% for JT, 65% for NTT and 70% for JR. In addition, NTT, JT and JR increased their ordinary income by 8 times, 5.5 times and 3 times, respectively. The productivity of NTT, JT and JR increased 3 times, 2.5 times and 1.5 times, respectively. Sales at NTT and JR increased 2.2 times and 1.2 times, respectively. Nakasone wrote of his economic reforms:

I was carrying out a kind of "improvement" of Japan's structure. For 110 years, ever since the Meiji restoration, Japan had been striving to catch up with America and Britain. In the 1970s we did catch up. Beyond that point the [state's] regulations only stand in the way of the growth of the economy. If government officials have too much power, the private sector of the economy will not grow. We had to change the system.Harvey, p. 364.

For the first time in Japan's post-war history, bureaucrats lost their leading role. In 1985, Nakasone appointed the former Governor of the Bank of Japan, Haruo Maekawa, to head a commission on Japan's economic future. In 1986, the Commission recommended that Japan should grow not through exports (which were angering Japan's trading partners) but from within. Nakasone advised the Japanese public to purchase foreign imports; in a well-publicised shopping trip, he bought an American tennis racket, an Italian tie and a French shirt. He said: "Japan is like a mah-jong player who always wins. Sooner or later the other players will decide that they do not want to play with him". The Japanese public were skeptical but the Commission created a good impression abroad, especially in America, where the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs W. Allen Wallis called it a watershed in Japan's post-war economic policy.{{cite book|author=Karel van Wolferen|title=The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation|location=New York|publisher=Vintage|date=1990|page=413}}

Nakasone also became known for having a nationalist attitude and for wanting to stimulate ethnic pride amongst the Japanese.Wolferen, p. 267. He was an adherent to the nihonjinron theory that claims Japan is incomparably different from the rest of the world.Wolferen, p. 264. Influenced by Japanese philosopher Tetsuro Watsuji, Nakasone believed that Japan's "monsoon culture" inspired a special Japanese compassion, unlike the desert culture of the Middle East that produced the Judeo-Christian "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". In a speech in 1986, Nakasone said it was Japan's international mission to spread the monsoon culture abroad.

On 15 August 1985, the fortieth anniversary of Japan's surrender, Nakasone and his Cabinet visited the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war casualties - including convicted war criminals - were buried, in full mourning dress. This had great symbolic significance as he visited the shrine in his official capacity, intending to reassert the Japanese government's respect for the spirits of the ancestors killed in battle, including those who died in World War II.Harvey, p. 367. This turned out however to be a controversial move which was heavily criticised by the Chinese Government (including in its newspaper, People's Daily) and led to angry demonstrations in Beijing.{{cite news |last=Haberman |first=Clyde |date=10 October 1985 |title=Nakasone, Giving in, Will Shun Shrine |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/10/world/nakasone-giving-in-will-shun-shrine.html |access-date= 30 December 2020}} It was also attacked by opponents at home for violating the Constitution's separation of religion and state. Nakasone defended his actions by saying, "The true defence of Japan ... becomes possible only through the combination of liberty-loving peoples who are equal to each other ... The manner is desired to be based on self-determination of the race". He also said, "It is considered progressive to criticise pre-war Japan for its faults and defects, but I firmly oppose such a notion. A nation is still a nation whether it wins or loses a war".Harvey, p. 368.

Nakasone also sought educational reform, setting up a commission. Its report recommended that "a spirit of patriotism" should be inculcated in children, along with respect for elders and authority. This was not fully implemented and came under attack from the teachers' trade union. The commission also recommended that the national anthem should be taught and that the Rising Sun Flag should also be raised during entrance and graduation ceremonies. History textbooks were also reformed. In 1986, Nakasone dismissed his Education Minister, Masayuki Fujio, after he justified Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910.

Nakasone aroused controversy in September 1986 when he claimed that Americans were, on average, less intelligent than Japanese because "the US has many immigrants, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Blacks, who bring the average level down" and also said that "in America today there are still many Blacks who can't even read."{{Cite book|last=Thorsten|first=Marie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HOHGBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT58|title=Superhuman Japan: Knowledge, Nation and Culture in US-Japan Relations|date=2012-03-15|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-44672-6|language=en}} He then clarified his comments, stating that he meant to congratulate the U.S. on its economic success despite the presence of "problematic" minorities.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101861006-143333,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310234346/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101861006-143333,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 March 2007|title=Nakasone's World-Class Blunder|first=Ezra|last=Bowen|magazine=Time|date=24 June 2001}} Ainu people living in Japan criticized this comment as ignoring the reality of racial discrimination against them.{{Cite news |date=October 24, 1986 |title='No Minority Races in Japan,' Says Nakasone |work=The Japan Times |pages=2}}

In 1987, he was forced to resign after he attempted to introduce a value added tax to reduce the burden of direct taxes in a policy designed to cut the budget deficit.

File:President Reagan and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.jpg|Having lunch with Ronald Reagan (at Nakasone's country residence in Hinode, Nishitama, Tokyo in 1983)

File:G-7 Summit 1983.jpg|With leaders of the G7 (at the 9th G7 summit in 1983)

File:President Ronald Reagan Walking with Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone of Japan at Camp David.jpg|With Ronald Reagan (at Camp David on 13 April 1986)

File:President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan receive a gift from Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.jpg|With Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan (at Camp David on 13 April 1986)

File:Mulroney Thatcher and Gorbachev at Reagan's funeral.jpg President Mikhail Gorbachev, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (at the Funeral of former President Ronald Reagan on 11 June 2004)]]

Nakasone was replaced by Noboru Takeshita in 1987, and was implicated, along with other LDP lawmakers, in the Recruit scandal that broke the following year.{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-10-fi-1948-story.html|title=Ex-Executive Is Sentenced in Japan's Recruit Scandal|date=10 October 1990|website=Los Angeles Times}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/10/business/big-conviction-in-recruit-scandal.html|title=Big Conviction in Recruit Scandal|first=David E.|last=Sanger|work=The New York Times|date=10 October 1990}}

Although he remained in the Diet for another decade and a half, his influence gradually waned. In 2003, despite a fight,{{cite web|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2003/10/24/national/single-seat-constituencies-offer-refuge-for-ldp-elders-who-refuse-to-retire/#.XeDWOPZuI2w|title=Single-seat constituencies offer refuge for LDP elders who refuse to retire|publisher=The Japan Times|date=24 October 2003|access-date=29 November 2019}} Nakasone was not given a place on the LDP's electoral list as the party, by then led by Jun'ichirō Koizumi, introduced an age limit of 73 years for candidates in the proportional representation blocks, ending his career as a member of the Diet.{{cite news|url=https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191129_28/|title=Yasuhiro Nakasone dies|work=NHK World-Japan News|date=28 November 2019|access-date=30 November 2019}}

In 2010, "aware of his status as one of the few leaders revered across Japan's suddenly fractured political landscape" and the country's "most revered elder statesman", Nakasone launched a series of interviews to address the direction of prime minister Yukio Hatoyama's government. In a profile at that time, he saw Hatoyama's "inexperienced left-leaning" government as "challenging Japan's postwar political order and its close relationship with the United States". As well, the LDP was "crumbling into disarray" in the wake of Hatoyama's victory. In the profile, Nakasone described the moment "as a national opening on par with the wrenching social and political changes that followed defeat in the [world] war [and] praised the appearance of a strong second political party as a step toward true democracy". "Being knocked out of power is a good chance to study in the cram school of public opinion", he was quoted as saying of the LDP. He "faulted Mr. Hatoyama for giving Washington the impression that [Hatoyama] valued ties with China more than he did those with the United States. 'Because of the prime minister’s imprudent remarks, the current situation calls for Japan to make efforts to improve things,' he said. The [Japanese] relationship with the United States is different from that with China, he said, because 'it is built on a security alliance, and not just on the alliance, but on the shared values of liberal democracy, and on its shared ideals.'" And relative to another high-profile current source of friction between Japan and the United States, Nakasone said: "Problems like Okinawa [and the American military base there] can be solved by talking together."

On 11 February 1945, Nakasone married Tsutako Nakasone (30 October 1921 – 7 November 2012).{{cite book|author1=IPS Chiyoda-ku|author2=Leslie Connors|author3=Yasuhiro Nakasone|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pRwOAB75pJoC&q=Tsutako+Nakasone+1945&pg=PA44|title=The Making of the New Japan: Reclaiming the Political Mainstream|date=6 December 2012|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136116506|access-date=29 November 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://gree.jp/nakasone_hirofumi/blog/entry/654789333|script-title=ja:中曽根弘文 公式ブログ/中曽根蔦子との別れ - GREE|publisher=Gree.jp|access-date=29 November 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://tisen.jp/hbd/query.php?from=12281&KeyDate=&KeyName=&KeyTITLE=&KeyHOME=&KeyNAME_2=&KeyMEMO=|script-title=ja:誕生日データベース|publisher=Tisen.jp|access-date=29 November 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.asahi.com/obituaries/intro/TKY201211070815.html?id1=2&id2=cabcbbai|script-title=ja:朝日新聞デジタル：中曽根蔦子さん死去 康弘元首相の妻 - おくやみ・訃報|publisher=Asahi.com|date=7 November 2012|access-date=29 November 2019}} Nakasone's son, Hirofumi Nakasone, is also a member of the Diet; he has served as Minister of Education and as Minister of Foreign Affairs.{{cite web|url=https://www.jimin.jp/member/member_list/legislator/100497.html|script-title=ja:中曽根 弘文|title=Nakasone Hirofumi|website=jimin.jp|access-date=30 November 2019}} His grandson, Yasutaka Nakasone, is a member of the House of Representatives.{{cite web |title=LDP Members NAKASONE Yasutaka |url=https://www.jimin.jp/english/profile/members/136070.html |website=jimin.jp |access-date=11 July 2023}}

Nakasone died in Tokyo on 29 November 2019, at the age of 101 years and 186 days.{{cite news|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2019/11/9aa816c91bed-breaking-news-ex-japanese-prime-minister-nakasone-dies-at-101.html|title=Ex-Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone dies at 101|newspaper=Kyodo News+ |publisher=English.kyodonews.net|date=29 November 2019|access-date=29 November 2019}}{{cite web|author=Norimitsu Onishi|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/obituaries/yasuhiro-nakasone-dies-japan.html|title=Yasuhiro Nakasone, Assertive Prime Minister of Japan, Dies at 101|work=New York Times|date=28 November 2019|access-date=29 November 2019}} Nakasone was the second oldest Prime Minister of Japan by age after Naruhiko Higashikuni, who lived to {{Age in years and days|1887|12|3|1990|1|20|mf=y}}.{{cite news|url=https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180526/p2a/00m/0na/016000c|title=Ex-Japan PM Nakasone to turn 100 on May 27|date=26 May 2018|newspaper=Mainichi Daily News}}

File:Yoshihide Suga 20201017 3.jpg Yoshihide Suga addressed at the official funeral for Yasuhiro Nakasone at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa in Minato Ward, Tōkyō Metropolis on October 17, 2020]]

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• {{Portal-inline|Biography}}
• {{Portal-inline|Japan}}
• {{Portal-inline|Conservatism}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• Robert Harvey, The Undefeated: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Greater Japan (London: Macmillan, 1994).
• Karel van Wolferen, The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation (New York: Vintage, 1990).
• The Making of the New Japan. Curzon Press. 6 March 2015.

{{refend}}

• {{C-SPAN|1826}}

• Hatta, Tatsuo. "The Nakasone-Takeshita tax reform: a critical evaluation". American Economic Review 82.2 (1992): 231–236. {{JSTOR|2117406}}.
• Hebbert, Michael, and Norihiro Nakai. "Deregulation of Japanese planning in the Nakasone era". Town Planning Review 59.4 (1988): 383.
• {{cite book|first=Christopher P.|last=Hood|year=2001|title=Japanese Education Reform: Nakasone's Legacy|location=London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-23283-X}}
• Muramatsu, Michio. "In search of national identity: The politics and policies of the Nakasone administration". Journal of Japanese Studies 13.2 (1987): 307–342. {{JSTOR|132472}}.
• Pharr, Susan J. "Japan in 1985: The Nakasone Era Peaks". Asian Survey 26.1 (1986): 54–65. {{JSTOR|2644093}}.
• Pyle, Kenneth B. "In pursuit of a grand design: Nakasone betwixt the past and the future". Journal of Japanese Studies 13.2 (1987): 243–270. {{JSTOR|132470}}.
• Hofmann, Reto. "The Conservative Imaginary: Moral Re-armament and the Internationalism of the Japanese Right, 1945–1962," Japan Forum, (2021) 33:1, 77-102, DOI:10.1080/09555803.2019.1646785
• Thayer, Nathaniel B. "Japan in 1984: the Nakasone Era continues". Asian Survey 25.1 (1985): 51–64. {{JSTOR|2644056}}.

• Carter, Jimmy, and Yasuhiro Nakasone. "Ensuring alliance in an unsure world: The strengthening of US‐Japan partnership in the 1990s". Washington Quarterly 15.1 (1992): 43–56.
• Nakasone, Yasuhiro. "Reflections on Japan's past". Asia‐Pacific Review 2.2 (1995): 53–71.
• Nakasone, Yasuhiro. "Pitchers and catchers: Politicians, bureaucrats, and policy‐making in Japan". Asia‐Pacific Review 2.1 (1995): 5–14.
• Nakasone, Yasuhiro. "Japan and the China Problem: A Liberal-Democratic View". Japan Quarterly 8.3 (1961): 266–273.

{{Navboxes

|title=Offices and distinctions

|list1=

{{s-start}}

{{s-off}}

{{s-bef|before=Zenkō Suzuki}}

{{s-ttl|title=Prime Minister of Japan|years=1982–1987}}

{{s-aft|after=Noboru Takeshita}}

{{s-bef|before=Sōsuke Uno}}

{{s-ttl|title=Minister of State, Head of the Administrative Management Agency|years=1980–1982}}

{{s-aft|after=Kunikichi Saitō}}

{{s-bef|before=Kakuei Tanaka}}

{{s-ttl|title=Minister of International Trade and Industry|years=1972–1974}}

{{s-aft|after=Toshio Kōmoto}}

{{s-bef|before=Tatsunosuke Takasaki
Shirō Kiuchi}}

{{s-ttl|title=Minister of State, Head of the Science and Technology Agency|years=1959–1960
1972}}

{{s-aft|after=Masuo Araki
Kazuo Maeda}}

{{s-bef|before=Kiichi Arita}}

{{s-ttl|title=Minister of State, Head of the Defense Agency|years=1970–1971}}

{{s-aft|after=Keiichi Masuhara}}

{{s-bef|before=Takeo Ōhashi}}

{{s-ttl|title=Minister of Transport|years=1967–1968}}

{{s-aft|after=Ken Harada}}

{{s-dip}}

{{s-bef|before=Helmut Kohl}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chairperson of the G7|years=1986}}

{{s-aft|after=Amintore Fanfani}}

{{s-ppo}}

{{s-bef|before=Zenkō Suzuki}}

{{s-ttl|title=President of the Liberal Democratic Party|years=1982–1987}}

{{s-aft|after=Noboru Takeshita}}

{{s-bef|before=Susumu Nikaidō}}

{{s-ttl|title=Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party|years=1974–1976}}

{{s-aft|after=Tsuneo Uchida}}

{{s-bef|before=Zenkō Suzuki
Masumi Esaki}}

{{s-ttl|title= General Council Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party|years=1971–1972
1977–1978}}

{{s-aft|after=Zenkō Suzuki
Kuraishi Tadao}}

{{s-bef|before=Himself (Co-chairman)
Umekichi Nakamura (Co-chairman)
Yoshio Sakurauchi (Co-chairman)}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of Shinsei Dōshikai (Nakasone faction)|years=1968–1978}}

{{s-non|reason=Change of official faction name}}

{{s-new|reason=Change of official faction name}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of Seisaku Kagaku Kenkyūjo (Nakasone faction)|years=1978–1990}}

{{s-aft|after=Michio Watanabe}}

{{s-par|jp-lwr}}

{{s-new|reason=New district}}

{{s-ttl|title=Representative for Gunma's 3rd district (multi-member)|alongside=Mitsuhei Obuchi, Takeo Fukuda, Tsuruo Yamaguchi, Keizō Obuchi, Yasuo Fukuda, numerous others | years=1947–1996}}

{{s-non|reason=District eliminated}}

{{s-new|reason=Introduction of proportional voting}}

{{s-ttl|title=Representative for the Kita-Kantō PR block | years=1996–2004}}

{{s-aft|after=Genichiro Sata}}

{{s-aca}}

{{s-bef|before=Yoshiro Ando}}

{{s-ttl|title=Principal of Takushoku University|years=1967–1971}}

{{s-aft|after=Teisuke Toyoda}}

{{S-end}}}}

{{Prime Ministers of Japan}}

{{Liberal Democratic Party of Japan}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakasone, Yasuhiro}}

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