Editing Eisaku Satō (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Eisaku Satō, Shigeru Yoshida, Saeki Ozawa 1953.jpg|thumb|left|From left Sato (then Minister of Construction), Prime Minister [[Shigeru Yoshida]] and Party chairman Saeki Ozawa (1953)]]
Satō was born on 27 March 1901, in [[Tabuse]], [[Yamaguchi Prefecture]], the third son of businessman Hidesuke Satō and his wife Moyo. His father had worked in the Yamaguchi Prefectural Office, but quit in 1898, and started a [[sake]] brewing business in Kishida, Tabuse. The family had a history in sake brewing and had held the right for sake brewing for generations.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Yamada |first1=Eizō |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20260847 |title=Seiden Satō Eisaku |last2=山田栄三 |date=1988 |publisher=Shinchōsha |isbn=4-10-370701-1 |pages=23 |oclc=20260847}}</ref> Satō's great-grandfather was a [[samurai]] of the [[Chōshū Domain]], with their outsized influence in [[Meiji Restoration|Meiji]] era Japan, with more Meiji and [[Taishō|Taisho]] prime ministers coming from Yamaguchi than any other prefecture. His two older brothers were [[Ichirō Satō]], who would become a vice admiral, and [[Nobusuke Kishi]], who served as prime minister from 1957 to 1960.<ref name=Sun>{{cite book |last1=Kurzman |first1=Dan |title=Kishi and Japan: The Search for the Sun |date=1960 |publisher=Obolensky |isbn=9780839210573}}</ref>

Satō studied [[German law]] at [[Tokyo Imperial University]] and in 1923, passed the senior civil service examinations. Upon graduation the following year, he became a [[civil servant]] in the [[Ministry of Railways (Japan)|Ministry of Railways]]. He served as Director of the Osaka Railways Bureau from 1944 to 1946 and [[Ministry of Transport (Japan)|Vice-Minister for Transport]] from 1947 to 1948.<ref name=nobelprize.org>{{cite web|title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1974|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1974/sato-bio.html|publisher=Nobel Prize|access-date=6 January 2013}}</ref>