Kiichi Miyazawa

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Kiichi Miyazawa (宮澤 喜一 Miyazawa Ki'ichi) (born October 8, 1919) is a Japanese politician and was the 78th Prime Minister from November 5, 1991 to August 9, 1993.

He was born in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University with a degree in law. In 1942, he joined the Ministry of Finance. In 1953, he was elected to the upper house of the Diet of Japan, where he stayed until moving to the lower house in 1967.

Miyazawa held a number of prominent public positions, including Minister of International Trade and Industry (1970-71), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1974-76), Director General of the Economic Planning Agency (1977-78), and Chief Cabinet Secretary (1984-86). He became Minister of Finance under the government of Noboru Takeshita in 1987, but had to resign amid the Recruit scandal.

He became Prime Minister in November 1991, gaining brief fame in the United States when President George H. W. Bush vomited in his lap and then fainted during a state dinner on January 8, 1992. (The Japanese named a verb for this incident: "bushusuru," meaning "to commit an instance of embarrassing public vomiting.")

Miyazawa had to resign in 1993 of a vote of no confidence.

He later returned to the post of finance minister from 1999 to 2002 in the governments of Keizo Obuchi and Yoshiro Mori. Miyazawa is also a member of the Trilateral Commission. He retired from the Diet in 2003.

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