First elected to the House of Representatives in 1947, his career was briefly interrupted by a bribery scandal soon after, but from 1957 he served successively as Minister of Communications, Minister of Finance (in three different cabinets) and Minister of International Trade. In 1972 he became Japan’s youngest post‐war Prime Minister (1972–74). He was forced to resign as a result of a bribery scandal in December 1974 and in 1976 had to face accusations of responsibility for the Lockheed scandal, relating to the corrupt sale of US military aircraft to Japan. During lengthy legal proceedings against him he remained a powerful force within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in 1983, but launched an appeal, which had reached the Supreme Court of Japan by October 1992. He was disabled by a severe stroke in 1985 and by 1987 his intra‐party faction had disintegrated.