Background
Sakurauchi was born in Tokyo on 8th of May, 1912. He was the son of Yukio Sakurauchi, late lower house member and finance minister.
義雄 櫻内
Sakurauchi was born in Tokyo on 8th of May, 1912. He was the son of Yukio Sakurauchi, late lower house member and finance minister.
Yoshio Sakurauchi attended the Keio schools from kindergarten through university.
Sakurauchi began his political career in 1947, when he was first elected to the lower house of Parliament. His constituency included Kashima. He served at the lower house for 18 terms. He was also once elected to the upper house, serving there for 19 months.
He held different ministerial and party posts in his career. In addition, he was leader of the Kano faction in the LDP. This faction was renamed as the Nakasone faction in 1965. His leadership of the faction lasted until 1989. Then the faction was headed by Michio Watanabe.
In addition, he served as foreign minister, agriculture minister, minister of international trade and industry and construction minister. Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda appointed Sakurauchi the minister of international trade and industry on 18 July 1964. Sakurauchi continued to serve in the same post in the next cabinet headed by Prime Minister Eisaku Satō, but he was fired and replaced by Miki Takeo in June 1965.
On 28 April 1977, Sakurauchi was appointed construction minister to the government of Takeo Fukuda in a cabinet reshuffle, replacing Shiro Hasegawa in the post. Sakurauchi served as construction minister until 7 December 1978.
He was appointed the secretary general of the LDP on 16 November 1979. His term lasted until 30 November 1981 when he was named foreign minister. He was appointed foreign minister in the cabinet led by Prime Minister Zenkō Suzuki on 30 November 1981.
In addition, he was appointed speaker of Japan's lower house of parliament on 27 February 1990. Sakurachi's term as speaker ended on 18 June 1993.
Besides these positions, Sakurauchi was named as the first chairman of the League for Japan-Vietnam Friendship that was established by Japanese and Vietnamese politicians in 1974 to promote mutual understanding and friendship between Japan and Vietnam.
Sakurauchi was not included in the LDP's proportional representation list for the 25 June 2000 general elections, and he stated that he would retire from politics. Eventually, he retired from politics in June 2000.
Sakurauchi died of respiratory failure at a Tokyo hospital on 5 July 2003. He was 91. His funeral service was held at Ikegami Hommonji Temple in Tokyo's Ota Ward on 8 July 2003.