Editing Noboru Takeshita (section)

==Later years and death==
Although Takeshita was accused of [[insider trading]] and [[political corruption|corruption]], he was never charged and was able to retain his seat in the Diet until shortly before his death.<ref name="latobit" /> He remained a major behind-the-scenes player in the LDP, mentoring future prime ministers [[Sōsuke Uno]], [[Toshiki Kaifu]], and [[Keizō Obuchi]]. [[Tsutomu Hata]] and [[Ichiro Ozawa]] left Takeshita's faction to form the [[Japan Renewal Party]]. [[Keizo Obuchi]] inherited what was left of the faction, supported the election of [[Ryutaro Hashimoto]] as prime minister, and himself became prime minister from 1999 to 2000; he died of a stroke in early 2000 and Hashimoto took over control of the faction.<ref name="carlson">Matthew Carlson, in {{cite book|last=Gaunder|first=Alisa|title=Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics|year=2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781136818387|pages=75–77|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gdwEocAa3nYC&q=tanaka%20faction&pg=PA75}}</ref>

Takeshita himself died of respiratory failure in June 2000 after over a year in hospital, during which time he was said to have "masterminded" the coalition between the LDP and [[New Komeito]] and to have arranged the election of Prime Minister [[Yoshiro Mori]] from his hospital bed. He had planned to retire from the Diet as of the [[2000 Japanese general election|2000 general election]], which occurred just days after his death.<ref name="latobit" /> ''The Economist'' characterized his death as the end of an era that was "a dizzy mixture of brilliance and corruption" in Japanese politics.<ref name="economist" />

Hashimoto led the former Takeshita faction until refusing to stand in the [[2005 Japanese general election|2005 general election]] due to a fundraising scandal, and died shortly thereafter. The remnants of the faction, formally known by this time as ''Heisei Kenkyūkai'' (Heisei Research Council), remained active under the leadership of [[Yūji Tsushima]], who resigned prior to the [[2009 Japanese general election|2009 general election]], passing control to [[Fukushiro Nukaga]]. The faction raised much less in donations during the 1990s and 2000s than it did under Tanaka and Takeshita in the 1980s, as electoral reforms enacted in 1994, coupled with new campaign finance regulations and the ongoing economic slump that followed the [[Japanese asset price bubble]], weakened the power of factions in Japanese politics.<ref name="carlson" />