Uno, Sosuke

Uno, Sosuke, 1922–98, Japanese politician, b. Moriyama, Shiga prefecture. He attended Kobe Univ. of Commerce and served in the Japanese army in World War II. A member of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP), he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1960 and served as head of several ministries including defense (1974), trade and industry (1983), and foreign affairs (1987–89); in the last post he helped normalize relations between Japan and South Korea. Following the resignation of Noboru Takeshita due to a financial scandal, he became head of the LDP and served briefly (June–Aug., 1989) as prime minister before being brought down by a sex scandal. He continued in parliament until 1996. Uno also was an accomplished pianist and published two volumes of haiku and a memoir of his experience as a prisoner of war in Siberia.

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