Toshiki Kaifu
On Saturday, January 15, 2022 I read on page two of the Japan Times print newspaper about the death on January 9th at age 91 of former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu (January 2, 1931 - January 9, 2022). Kaifu was one of the first Prime Ministers I lived under after coming to Japan. He was PM from August 1989 to November 1991.
When I first arrived in Tokyo, the PM was the great and powerful successor to Yasuhiro Nakasone, Noboru Takeshita, who went down in flames in the spring of 1989 (soon after the death of Emperor Hirohito) because of the Recruit bribery scandal. After that, Sosuke Uno was PM for just over two months in the summer of 1989 until he fell to a Geisha sex scandal. Then came Toshiki Kaifu, the first PM that I paid any real attention to. I thought he looked like Charlie Brown because he had a big head atop a small body. At the time, I said that jokingly, but it never meant that I didn't like him or thought ill of him. I thought he was cute.