This book examines the lives and times of Japan’s postwar prime ministers, covering the period from 1945 to 1995. Written by Japan’s leading scholars, it is the first English-language biographical portrait of these twenty-three individuals who helped lead Japan on its road to recovery, its return to the community of nations, and its subsequent prosperity. Each chapter brings out, to varying degrees, the larger political and historical environment, party dynamics, and personality traits of the prime ministers. In addition, the book discusses not only the policy choices the prime ministers made, but how those decisions were made and what the consequences were for the country, ruling party, and the individual who made them. The Prime Ministers of Postwar Japan, 1945–1995 fills a large void in the literature on postwar Japan by introducing the actual people who made the decisions during these important years, rather than simply discussing the theories and institutions in which those decisions were made.

Translated by: Robert D. Eldridge
Contributions by: Akira Amakawa, Haruhiro Fukui, Fukunaga Fumio, Sumio Hatano, Takeshi Igarashi, Takenori Inoki, Jun Io, Makoto Iokibe, Shinichi Kitaoka, Masataka Kosaka, Ikuo Kume, Atsushi Kusano, Hiroshi Masuda, Takashi Mikuriya, Michio Muramatsu, Takafusa Nakamura, Toshimitsu Shinkawa, Zenichiro Tanaka, Akio Watanabe, Kentoku Yamamuro