Editing Kakuei Tanaka (section)

==Political career==
===Rise into politics===
[[File:Tanaka kakuei.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Tanaka in 1951]]
In November 1945, Tanaka met with {{ill|Tadao Oasa|ja|大麻唯男}}, a veteran politician who served as adviser to the Tanaka Construction Company. Oasa was in the middle of forming the [[Japan Progressive Party]] (日本進歩党, ''Nihon Shinpoto'') and asked Tanaka to contribute money, which he happily did. Oasa later recruited Tanaka as a candidate for the party in Niigata Prefecture for the [[1946 Japanese general election|first postwar election in April 1946]].{{sfn|Schlesinger|1999|pp=32-33}}{{sfn|Hunziker|Kamimura|1996|pp=38-39}}

During this first bid for a Diet seat, Tanaka relied on local political notables and associates from Riken to support his campaign. He worked around the election laws of the time by opening a branch office in Kashiwazaki and placing large "Tanaka" sign on the building to gain name recognition. However, his bid unraveled as three of the notables supposed to support him ran as candidates themselves, as did the brother of the Riken Kashiwazaki factory manager, splitting Tanaka's support base. Tanaka only captured 4% of the vote, finishing in eleventh place whereas the district was filling eight seats.{{sfn|Schlesinger|1999|pp=32-33}}{{sfn|Hunziker|Kamimura|1996|pp=39-41}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://go2senkyo.com/shugiin/17807/senkyoku/31417 |title=新潟2区 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |website=Go2senkyo.com |publisher=ichini |language=Japanese |access-date=27 July 2024 }}</ref>

Tanaka was better prepared for the next election, which came in [[1947 Japanese general election|April 1947]]. He had set up Tanaka Construction branch offices in Kashiwazaki and [[Nagaoka, Niigata|Nagaoka]], employing a hundred people who would assist him in the campaign. Tanaka targeted rural voters; he became known for his diligence in visiting remote villages. He was elected in third place out of five seats.{{sfn|Schlesinger|1999|pp=34-35}}{{sfn|Hunziker|Kamimura|1996|pp=39-41}}{{sfn|Hunziker|Kamimura|1996|p=45}} He took his Diet seat as a member of the new [[Democratic Party (Japan, 1947)|Democratic Party]] (民主党, ''Minshuto'').  In the Diet, he became friends with former prime minister [[Kijūrō Shidehara]] and joined Shidehara's [[Dōshi Club (1947–48)|Dōshi Club]].  Then in 1948, the Doshi Club defected to the new [[Democratic Liberal Party (Japan)|Democratic Liberal Party]], and Tanaka instantly won favor with the DLP's leader, [[Shigeru Yoshida]]. Yoshida appointed Tanaka as a Vice Minister of Justice, the youngest in the nation's history.

Then, on 13 December, Tanaka was arrested and imprisoned on charges of accepting ¥1m (US$13,000) in bribes from coal mining interests in [[Kyūshū]].  Yoshida and the DLP dropped most of their ties with Tanaka, removed him from his official party posts, and refused to fund his next re-election bid.  Despite this, Tanaka announced his candidacy for the [[1949 Japanese general election|1949 general election]], and was released from prison in January after securing [[bail]].  He was re-elected, and made a deal with [[Chief Cabinet Secretary]] [[Eisaku Satō]] to resign his vice-ministerial post in exchange for continued membership in the DLP.

The [[Tokyo District Court]] found Tanaka guilty in 1950, and Tanaka responded by filing an appeal.  In the meantime, he took over the failing [[Nagaoka Railway]] that linked Niigata to Tokyo, and through a combination of good management and good luck, brought it back into operation in 1951.  In that [[1952 Japanese general election|year's election]], he was re-elected to the Diet in a [[landslide victory]], and many of the railroad's employees came out to campaign for him.  That year's election was also the first in which he was supported by billionaire capitalist {{ill|Kenji Osano|ja|小佐野賢治}}, who would remain one of Tanaka's most loyal supporters to the end.

===Etsuzankai===
[[File:Kakuei_Tanaka_PM.jpg|thumb|left|Kakuei Tanaka in October 1954]]
Tanaka's most important support base, however, was a group called ''Etsuzankai'' (越山会, literally "Niigata Mountain Association").  Etsuzankai's function was to screen various petitions from villagers in rural parts of Niigata.  Tanaka would answer these petitions with government-funded [[pork barrel]] projects.  In turn, the local villagers all financially supported Etsuzankai, which, in its turn, funded the re-election campaigns of local Diet members, including Tanaka.  At its peak, Etsuzankai had 100,000 members.

The projects funded by Etsuzankai included the [[Tadami River]] [[hydroelectric power]] project, the [[New Shimizu Tunnel]], and, perhaps most infamously, the [[Jōetsu Shinkansen]] [[high-speed rail]] line.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

During the 1950s, Tanaka brought Etsuzankai members to his residence in Tokyo by bus, met with each of them individually, and then provided them with tours of the Diet and Imperial Palace.  This practice made Etsuzankai the most tightly knit political organization in Japanese history, and it also furthered Tanaka's increasingly gangster-like image.

===Consolidation of power===
Tanaka became a member of the [[Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)|Liberal Democratic Party]] when it formed in November 1955, from the merger of the [[Liberal Party (Japan, 1950)|Liberal Party]] and the [[Japan Democratic Party|Democratic Party]].{{sfn|Schlesinger|1999|p=47}}{{sfn|Hunziker|Kamimura|1996|p=72}} In November 1956 there was a party leadership race to succeed [[Ichirō Hatoyama]]. A split occurred in the Yoshida school between the factions of Eisaku Sato and Hayato Ikeda; Sato supported his brother [[Nobusuke Kishi]] and Ikeda supported [[Mitsujirō Ishii]]. Tanaka followed Sato rather than Ikeda, even though Tanaka’s stepdaughter married a nephew of Ikeda that same month. Nevertheless, Tanaka maintained close ties with the Ikeda and befriended his right-hand man [[Masayoshi Ōhira]].{{sfn|Hunziker|Kamimura|1996|pp=75-76}}{{sfn|Hattori|2021|pp=87-88}}{{sfn|Satō|Kōyama|Kumon|1990|p=174}}

Nobusuke Kishi narrowly lost to [[Tanzan Ishibashi]], but Ishibashi soon fell ill, so Kishi succeeded him in March 1957. When Kishi [[First Kishi Cabinet#Reshuffled Cabinet|reshuffled the cabinet]] in July, Tanaka received his first cabinet post, [[Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (Japan)|Minister of Posts and Telecommunications]].{{sfn|Hunziker|Kamimura|1996|pp=75-76}} In this role, he granted the first television broadcasting licenses in Japan.<ref name="nytobit" /> Tanaka was a friend of the commissioned postal system, by which local notables were commissioned by the state to serve as local postmasters. Under his tenure, Tanaka forged a strong relationship between the postmasters and the young LDP, and the postmasters would serve as important supporters for the party. Tanaka left cabinet in June 1958.{{sfn|Maclachlan|2004|pp=296-300}} He was appointed deputy secretary-general of the LDP in June 1959. Around this time, Tanaka came to be regarded as one of the "five commissioners of the Sato faction," along with [[Shigeru Hori]], [[Kiichi Aichi]], Tomisaburo Hashimoto and [[Raizo Matsuno]]: the principal executives who managed the faction of Eisaku Sato.{{sfn|Hattori|2021|p=94}}

After the resignation of Nobusuke Kishi, Tanaka supported Hayato Ikeda as his successor.{{sfn|Hunziker|Kamimura|1996|p=77}} Under Ikeda, Tanaka became chairman of the Policy Affairs Research Council, and eventually [[Minister of Finance (Japan)|Minister of Finance]]. Tanaka's term as minister of finance saw some of the highest economic growth in Japanese history.<ref name="nytobit" /> 

Satō succeeded Ikeda in 1964. When Satō reshuffled the cabinet and party leadership in June 1965 Tanaka was appointed [[Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party]]. His tenure saw the emergence of a number of corruption scandals involving LDP Diet members, collectively known as the Black Mist Scandal. Although Tanaka himself was not implicated, Satō replaced him with [[Takeo Fukuda]] in December 1966. Tanaka was given a low-profile position as chairman of the LDP Urban Policy Research Commission.{{sfn|Hunziker|Kamimura|1996|pp=97-100}}

Fukuda and Tanaka soon became the two battling heirs of the Satō administration, and their rivalry was dubbed by the Japanese press as the "Kaku-Fuku War."  Tanaka made a record showing in the 1967 general election, and Satō re-appointed him as secretary general in November 1968, moving Fukuda to the post of finance minister. In 1971, Satō gave Tanaka another important stepping stone to taking over the government: [[Ministry of International Trade and Industry|minister of international trade and industry]].

As head of MITI, Tanaka gained public support again by standing up to U.S. negotiators who wanted Japan to impose export caps on several products.  He had so many contacts within the American diplomatic corps that he was said to have played a larger role in the repatriation of [[Okinawa Prefecture|Okinawa]] than Satō himself.

In June 1972, he published his book, "A Plan for Remodeling the Japanese Archipelago." He made a de facto government pledge with the purpose of "promoting regional decentralization". This book initially sold 910,000 copies, partly because Tanaka later took the position of prime minister, and was ranked fourth in the year. It became a best seller.