Yasuo Fukuda
Fukuda was born in Takasaki, Gunma, the eldest son of politician (later the 67th Prime Minister) Takeo Fukuda. He grew up in Setagaya, Tokyo, attending Azabu High School and graduating from Waseda University in 1959 with a degree in economics. After university, he joined Maruzen Petroleum (now part of the Cosmo Oil Company). He was only minimally involved in politics over the next seventeen years, working his way up to section chief as a typical Japanese "salaryman". He was posted to the United States from 1962-64. While his father Takeo Fukuda was prime minister from 1976–78, Yasuo became a political secretary. From 1978 to 1989, he was a director of the Kinzai Institute for Financial Affairs, serving as a trustee from 1986 onward.
Kan Cabinet
His government handled the response to the massive earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan. The following nuclear accidents at private utility company TEPCO's nuclear power plant in Fukushima spurred the government to change the course of Japan's energy policy. Reversing the pro-nuclear policy of the previous administrations, Kan's government pushed for a conversion to renewable energy and eventual shut-down of Japan's nuclear plants. Japan's nuclear power plants were completely shut down by May 2012, leaving Japan without nuclear-generated electricity for the first time since 1970. Several of the plants were only brought back online after the DPJ was no longer in government. The LDP government led by Shinzo Abe gradually reopened the nuclear plants, starting with Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Kyushu on August 2015. The restart has been slow due to legal challenges and heavy domestic opposition.