Former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, known for seeking China ties, dies at 90

Former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, who used ⁠his brief period ⁠in office to seek ⁠closer ties with Asian neighbours, particularly China, has died at the age of 90, according to the Nikkei business daily on Monday.

The Japanese politician, the first son of a prime minister to become one ‌himself, died on Thursday from heart failure, the Nikkei reported.

Becoming prime minister on the sudden resignation of Shinzo Abe for health reasons in 2007, Fukuda lasted less than a year – a tenure even shorter than his father Takeo’s two-year stint.

A graduate in economics from Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda University, Fukuda spent nearly ⁠two decades working his way up the ranks of an oil company – including ‌a two-year posting in the United States – before resigning to become a political secretary when his father became prime minister in 1976.

Elected ‌to Japan’s more powerful lower house of parliament in 1990, Fukuda was ⁠chief cabinet ⁠secretary from 2000 to 2004, resigning as one of several cabinet ministers to admit not having paid into ‌the pension system.

Known for his testy manner, the bespectacled Fukuda drew criticism in 2003 for off-the-record comments ‌in ‌which he suggested women who dressed provocatively were asking to be raped.

When Fukuda ‌succeeded Abe, he joked he might have drawn the short straw in assuming ⁠office given the divided parliament and opposition parties’ ability to delay legislation. Frustrated with the ⁠stalled legislative process, Fukuda resigned in 2008, the second of six prime ministers to quit after only around a year in office.

Fukuda made efforts to develop ties with China, carrying on the work by Abe, who had himself taken over from Junichiro Koizumi just a year earlier. Japan-China relations had been strained under Koizumi due to his repeated visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Class-A war criminals along with the war dead.

Known as ‌a diplomatic dove, Fukuda visited China three months after becoming prime minister in September 2007 and invited then Chinese president Hu Jintao to visit Japan. Hu visited the country in May 2008, becoming the first Chinese head of state to do so in a decade.

After leaving office, Fukuda ‌made several visits to China in an effort to improve often fraught relations.

Fukuda leaves a son, Tatsuo, who is also a lawmaker and has been viewed as a potential future prime minister.