He entered the government tax service and rose by 1945 to become head of the National Tax Bureau. Having served as Vice-Minister of Finance in the Yoshida Shigera cabinet of 1947, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1949 and became successively Minister of Finance and Minister of International Trade. Serving in a succession of high ministerial posts throughout the 1950s, Ikeda became Prime Minister (1960–64) and devoted himself to sustaining Japanese economic growth through a broadening of international trading connections.