Hayato Ikeda

Hayato Ikeda
池田 勇人
Hayato Ikeda in 1962
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 19 July 1960 – 9 November 1964
Monarch	Shōwa
Preceded by	Nobusuke Kishi
Succeeded by	Eisaku Satō
Personal details
Born	(1899-12-03)3 December 1899 Takehara, Japan
Died	13 August 1965(1965-08-13) (aged 65) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic Party
Alma mater	Kyoto Imperial University
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Hayato Ikeda (池田 勇人, Ikeda Hayato^?, 3 December 1899 – 13 August 1965) was a Japanese politician and the 58th, 59th and 60th Prime Minister of Japan from 19 July 1960 to 9 November 1964. He was the last Prime Minister born in the 19th century.

Ikeda was born in present-day Takehara, Hiroshima, on 3 December 1899. He attended Kyoto Imperial University and joined the Ministry of Finance following graduation in 1925. While at the Ministry, he served as the head of the local tax offices in Hakodate and Utsunomiya. During his time in the latter role, in 1929, he contracted pemphigus foliaceus and went on sick leave for two years, formally resigning in 1931 once his sick leave had run out. The condition was cured by 1934. He briefly considered accepting a position at Hitachi, but returned to the Ministry of Finance in December 1934 to head a tax office in Osaka. Ikeda remained within the ministry through the end of World War II, eventually becoming Vice Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida in 1947.

Ikeda resigned from the Ministry of Finance in 1948 and won a seat in the House of Representatives, representing a portion of Hiroshima Prefecture, in the general election of 23 January 1949. He was a part of the liberal group that established the Democratic Liberal Party, a forerunner of the current Liberal Democratic Party. Along with Eisaku Satō, Ikeda was an understudy of Shigeru Yoshida early in his career, and was called an "honor student" for his commitment to the ideas presented in the Yoshida Doctrine, although he was a strong personality himself.