Sōsuke Uno (宇野 宗佑,Uno Sōsuke, 27 August 1922 – 19 May 1998) was a Japanesepolitician and formerPrime Minister of Japan in 1989.

Sōsuke Uno
宇野 宗佑
Official portrait, 1989
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 3 June 1989 – 10 August 1989
Monarch	Akihito
Preceded by	Noboru Takeshita
Succeeded by	Toshiki Kaifu
President of the Liberal Democratic Party
In office 2 June 1989 – 8 August 1989
Secretary-General	Ryutaro Hashimoto
Preceded by	Noboru Takeshita
Succeeded by	Toshiki Kaifu
Ministerial offices Minister for Foreign Affairs In office 8 November 1987 – 3 June 1989 Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita Preceded by Tadashi Kuranari Succeeded by Hiroshi Mitsuzuka Minister of International Trade and Industry In office 10 June 1983 – 27 November 1983 Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone Preceded by Sadanori Yamanaka Succeeded by Hikosaburo Okonogi Director-General of the Administrative Management Agency In office 9 November 1979 – 17 July 1980 Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira Preceded by Motohiko Kanai Succeeded by Yasuhiro Nakasone Director-General of the Science and Technology Agency In office 24 December 1976 – 28 November 1977 Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda Preceded by Masao Maeda Succeeded by Tasaburo Kumagai Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency In office 11 November 1974 – 9 December 1974 Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka Preceded by Sadanori Yamanaka Succeeded by Michita Sakata
Member of theHouse of Representatives
In office 20 November 1960 – 20 October 1996
Preceded by	Multi-member district
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Constituency	Shiga at-large
Member of the Shiga Prefectural Assembly
In office 1951–1958
Personal details
Born	(1922-08-27)27 August 1922 Moriyama, Shiga,Empire of Japan
Died	19 May 1998(1998-05-19) (aged 75) Moriyama,Shiga,Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic
Other political affiliations	Liberal (1945–1947) Democratic (1947–1950)
Spouse	Chiyo Hirose ​ (m. 1949)​
Relatives	Osamu Uno (son-in-law)
Alma mater	Kobe University of Commerce
Signature
Military career
Allegiance	Japan
Service/ branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1943–45
Rank	Second Lieutenant
Battles / wars	Second World War Soviet-Japanese War Soviet invasion of Manchuria

Born inShiga Prefecture, Uno enrolled in theKobe College of Commerce before he was conscripted into the army duringWorld War II. In 1960, he entered politics and was elected to theNational Diet, becoming a leadingLiberal Democratic Party member and a key ally ofYasuhiro Nakasone. Uno served as director of theDefense Agency underKakuei Tanaka, as director of theScience and Technology Agency underTakeo Fukuda, and as director of the Administrative Management Agency underMasayoshi Ōhira.

He was briefly international trade and industry minister in 1983, and foreign minister in 1987–1989. In 1989, Uno became prime minister but served for only two months before he resigned after a poor showing inthat year's upper house election, influenced by the lingeringRecruit scandal and public financial scandal with an outspokengeisha.

Uno was born inMoriyama, Shiga. His family owned asake brewery called Arachō, and had served as town officials (Japanese:Toshiyori). The family had previously ran a hotel and a general store in his birth home.^[1]

In 1943, he graduated from Hikone Commercial College (later,Shiga University) where he led Hikone Commercial College to the national champion ofKendo among the commercial universities and colleges in Japan and attended theKobe College of Commerce but had to leave the University two months later after the enrollment because he was called into theImperial Japanese Army as an officer duringWorld War II.^[2][3] After the war, he was sent toSiberia as a prisoner.^[2] He never came back toKobe College of Commerce again.^[2]

As well as a politician, Uno was an accomplished writer, who wrote a book considered classic in Japan about his experiences as a prisoner of war inSiberia.

In 1960, he entered politics, winning election to theDiet of Japan. Six years later, he was promoted to Vice-Minister at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, then similar positions with the Science and Technology Agency, then the Administrative Agency until earning his place in Cabinet as Minister for Trade and Industry and then Foreign Secretary until he was Prime Minister. Whilst Foreign Secretary (in what were conflicted times) he was applauded for his tact as foreign secretary, navigating international demands for increased Japanese contributions to international commerce with stern loyalty to his own nation's interests.

In 1974, he served briefly asDirector General of the Japan Defense Agency. As the Foreign Minister under then-Prime MinisterTakeshita, Uno became the first JapaneseCabinet member to visitIsrael since the1973 oil crisis.^[4] Uno's career reached a peak in the most fraught times his party had seen, as he took the reins of his party after theRecruit Scandal, when 47 Japanese MPs (including mostly other members from his own Liberal Democrat Party) were found guilty of taking bribes and unfair trading. Of all prime-ministerial candidates, only Uno was free of blame from them, and he was given charge over the party, the government, and Japan. By this stage he had served his country for almost fifty years, and was placed in office on 3 June 1989.

Uno encountered public scandal in 1989, when accused by theGeisha entertainer Mitsuko Nakanishi^[5][6] of being "immoral" and ungenerous in his financial support during their four-month affair in 1986. Nakanishi would claim in following newspaper interviews that Uno had treated older geisha with arrogance and contempt, had not paid the appropriate fee of ¥300,000 per month (roughly US$2,100 at the time) for her company of four months, and had not provided a traditional parting gift (a further monetary fee) as had been customary in geisha etiquette.

AWashington Post article published in July 1989 brought international attention to the affair,^[7] with some senior geisha denouncing Nakanishi as a whistleblower, effectively compromising the discreet nature of the profession and violated the traditionalist norms by engaging with political and economic affairs in the public sphere. Nakanishi later quit the profession after she was criticized by the GeishaGion Committee. She later remarried another man and divorced, attended aShingon Buddhist school temple inShiga Prefecture, and held various secretarial jobs unrelated to the geisha community. Due to the severity of the scandal, Nakanishi's own son disowned her during this time.^{[citation needed]}

Uno was highly criticized in public not for having a Geisha mistress, as it was a traditional leisure practice expected of politicians and wealthy men but instead due to relating his poor financial habits in theJapanese Diet as compared and paralleled to the ungenerosity towards his former Geisha mistress. Furthermore, the Geisha was outspoken in public and even made allegations and political suggestions in properly handling the Japanese economy, an unconventional behavior not expected of a traditionalist woman (Geisha culture) in which further exacerbated the situation.

To avoid further scandal, Sōsuke Uno resigned as prime minister on 10 August 1989 after just 68 days in office, but continued to serve his country in various government posts until he retired fully in 1996. On 29 April 1994, he was awarded with the highest possible honour for an ordinary civilian, the Grand Cordon of theOrder of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers.^[8]

At 72 years of age, Uno then enjoyed a peaceful retirement inMoriyama city. He died on 19 May 1998 in his private home. He had two daughters fromhis wife, Mrs. Chiyo Uno. He published two collections ofHaiku poems, as well as his book on prisonership inSiberia, along with painting, poetry, and music. A year later in 1999, his Geisha affair was highlighted in theSecret Life of Geisha, a TV documentary.^[9]

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers - (29 April 1994)

• West, Mark D. (2006).Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States. Chicago University Press.ISBN 978-0-226-89408-9.