Noboru Takeshita - Prime Ministership

Prime Ministership

By 1985, Takeshita's power within the party had eclipsed Tanaka's, and he was able to win enough support to defeat Tanaka as the head of the LDP's largest faction. In July 1986 he left the Cabinet, only to be named to the key post of secretary general of the party. In November 1987 he became party chairman and subsequently prime minister, replacing Yasuhiro Nakasone, his inner rival.

Among the highlights of the period in which Takeshita led the government, he acknowledged that Japan had been an aggressor during World War II. This statement was part of a speech in the Japanese Diet.