Tamisuke Watanuki

Tamisuke Watanuki
綿貫 民輔
Watanuki in 2009
Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office 4 July 2000 – 10 October 2003
Monarch	Akihito
Deputy	Kōzō Watanabe
Preceded by	Sōichirō Itō
Succeeded by	Yōhei Kōno
Minister of Construction
In office 28 February 1990 – 29 December 1990
Prime Minister	Toshiki Kaifu
Preceded by	Shōzō Harada
Succeeded by	Yūji Ōtsuka
Director-General of the National Land Agency
In office 22 July 1986 – 6 November 1987
Prime Minister	Yasuhiro Nakasone
Preceded by	Heihachirō Yamazaki
Succeeded by	Seisuke Okuno
Director-General of the Hokkaido Development Agency and the Okinawa Development Agency
In office 22 July 1986 – 6 November 1987
Prime Minister	Yasuhiro Nakasone
Preceded by	Raishirō Koga
Succeeded by	Shigeru Kasuya
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 29 December 1969 – 21 July 2009
Preceded by	Matsutarō Shōriki
Succeeded by	Keiichiro Tachibana
Constituency	Toyama 2nd (1969–1996) Toyama 3rd (1996–2009)
Member of the Toyama Prefectural Assembly
In office 1959–1967
Personal details
Born	(1927-04-30) 30 April 1927 (age 98) Inami, Toyama, Japan
Political party	LDP (1969–2005; 2016–present)
Other political affiliations	PNP (2005–2013) Independent (2013–2016)
Alma mater	Keio University

Tamisuke Watanuki (綿貫 民輔, Watanuki Tamisuke; born 30 April 1927) is a retired Japanese politician who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2000 to 2003.

Tamisuke Watanuki was born in 30 April 1927 in Inami, Toyama Prefecture. His father was a businessman and local politician who founded the Tonami Transportation Company. He was married the daughter of Sakae Watanuki, the chief priest of the Inami Hachimangu Shrine, and was adopted as a son-in-law.

Watanuki graduated from the Department of Economics at Keio University. He took over as president of Tonami Transportation in 1955 and was elected to the Toyama Prefectural Assembly in 1959. He was elected to the Diet in 1969 as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.^[1]

He served as Parliamentary Vice Minister of International Trade and Industry in 1975 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Miki, and as Parliamentary Vice Minister of Posts and Telecommunications under Prime Minister Fukuda, as well as some other cabinet positions through the 1980s. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives from July 2000 to November 2003.^[2]

He vigorously opposed Prime Minister Koizumi's plan to privatize the national post service and formed the People's New Party in 2005 to oppose the plan.^[3] Although Koizumi's party handily won a strong majority in the elections on 11 September 2005, Watanuki crushed the challenger in his district.^[4]