was the wife of former Japanese Foreign Minister Iichirō Hatoyama and mother of former

Prime Minister of Japan The prime minister of Japan ( Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its Ministers of S ...

Yukio Hatoyama is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 16 September 2009 to 8 June 2010. He was the first Prime Minister from the modern Democratic Party of Japan. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1986, Hat ...

and

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

(Japan's bicameral legislature) member

Kunio Hatoyama was a Japanese politician who served as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications under Prime Ministers Shinzō Abe and Yasuo Fukuda until 12 June 2009. Biography Kunio Hatoyama was born in Tokyo in 1948. He was a son of Yasuko Hato ...

. Hatoyama funded the establishment of the

Democratic Party of Japan The was a centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to centre-left liberal or social-liberal political party in Japan from 1998 to 2016. The party's origins lie in the previous Democratic ...

(DPJ).

Background and family

Hatoyama was born in present-day

Kurume, Fukuoka is a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, the city has an estimated population of 303,579 and a population density of 1,320 persons per km². The total area is 229.96 km². On February 5, 2005, the town of Kitano (fr ...

. Her father, Shojiro Ishibashi, founded the

Bridgestone Corporation is a Japanese multinational tire manufacturer founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi (1889–1976) in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a calque translation and transposition of , meaning 'stone bridge' in Japan ...

, the world's largest tiremaker, in 1930. She became heir to Ishibashi's considerable inheritance upon his death in the 1970s. She attended middle and high school in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, during which time she met former Iichirō Hatoyama, who later became

Foreign Minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

. They were married at the

Imperial Hotel, Tokyo The is a hotel in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda ward, Tokyo. It was created in the late 1880s at the request of the Japanese aristocracy to cater to the increasing number of Western visitors to Japan. The hotel site is located just south of the I ...

in 1942. The couple had two sons, both of whom have pursued successful political careers.

served as the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications under Prime Minister

Taro Aso Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Afric ...

defeated Aso in the 2009 general election and became the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

. The Hatoyama family has been called "Japan's

Kennedy family The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy beca ...

Political activities

Hatoyama contributed significant amounts of her inheritance to help finance the political and career goals of both her sons. She donated billions of yen in 1996 when her two sons, Kunio and Yukio, co-founded the

(DPJ). Her contributions helped to fund and establish the new

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

. She was nicknamed the " Godmother" within the Japanese political world for her

financial Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

contributions to the political ambitions of her family.

Death

Hatoyama resided in a home for the elderly adjacent to

St. Luke's International Hospital is a general and teaching hospital located in the Tsukiji district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan. First opened in 1902, as a medical mission facility by the Episcopal Church in the United States, the hospital is now one of central Tokyo's largest and m ...

in Chuo, Tokyo. She died there on February 11, 2013 at the age of 90. Hatoyama was survived by her two sons, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren at the time of her death.

Notes

References

* Itoh, Mayumi (2003)
''The Hatoyama Dynasty: Japanese Political Leadership through the Generations''
New York: Palgrave Macmillan. , . . {{DEFAULTSORT:Hatoyama, Yasuko 1922 births 2013 deaths Bridgestone people Yasuko Japanese activists Japanese women activists Democratic Party of Japan politicians People from Kurume Spouses of Japanese politicians Parents of prime ministers of Japan