was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1954 to 1956. During his tenure he oversaw the formation of the Liberal Democratic Party and restored official relations with the Soviet Union.
Hatoyama was born in Tokyo into a prominent and cosmopolitan family. After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University he soon entered political life and was first elected to the Diet in 1915 as a member of the Seiyukai political party. He served as chief cabinet secretary under Giichi Tanaka and minister of education under Tsuyoshi Inukai and Makoto Saitō. He was one of the leading members of the Seiyukai prior to its dissolution in 1940. During the Pacific War he opposed the cabinet of Hideki Tōjō.
After the war Hatoyama founded and led the Liberal Party which became the largest party in the first post-war election. He was expected to become prime minister, but was purged by the American occupation authorities on the eve of taking office and handed over the leadership to Shigeru Yoshida. After being released from the purge in 1951 he was in conflict with Yoshida who declined to cede the leadership back. He finally became prime minister after ousting Yoshida in 1954.
In 1955, the Democratic Party led by Hatoyama and the Liberal Party formerly led by Yoshida merged to form the Liberal Democratic Party, which has dominated Japanese politics ever since. Hatoyama pursued negotiations that led to the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, ending the formal state of war ongoing since the Soviet declaration of war on Japan in 1945, and restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries. Hatoyama resigned after this achievement, having long been of declining health.
A member of the Hatoyama family, he was the grandfather of Yukio Hatoyama, who served as prime minister from 2009 to 2010.
Early life
Ichirō Hatoyama was born in Tokyo, on New Year's Day of 1883, the eldest son of Kazuo Hatoyama and Haruko Hatoyama. His name indicated his status as the first born son in Japanese. Ichirō had an elder half-sister, Kazuko, and a younger brother Hideo, who became a noted jurist.
Their family been samurai sworn to the Miura clan before the Meiji Restoration. Kazuo Hatoyama was among a group of students selected by the government to study in America in 1875. He graduated from Columbia University and Yale Law School. After returning to Japan, he became a lawyer, educator and politician. Haruko was an educator who helped found Kyoritsu Women's Vocational School in 1886.
Ichirō Hatoyama received much of his early education from his mother. From early on Hatoyama was encouraged to pursue a political career and he readily accepted this ambition. His father was elected to the House of Representatives in 1894 and was its Speaker from 1896 to 1897.
Hatoyama attended First Higher School and afterwards studied law at Tokyo Imperial University. After graduating in 1907 he began working in his father's law office. The following year he married Kaoru, the daughter of Sakae Terada, a judge who later became a politician and an executive of the Gen'yōsha. Her mother was a niece of Haruko Hatoyama.
Pre-war political career
After his father died in 1911, Hatoyama was elected in the 1912 by-election for his father's seat in the Tokyo City Council. In the 1915 House of Representatives election, Hatoyama was elected from Tokyo district and belonged to the Rikken Seiyukai. A rival in the same constituency was Bukichi Miki, who later became a close friend and ally.
Property inherited from his father in Otowa, Bunkyō, Tokyo, was destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Hatoyama solicited his friend Shinichirō Okada to design a western-style residence in its stead. It was finished the following year and was called the Otowa Palace, and later Hatoyama Hall.
When Keigo Kiyoura became Prime Minister in January 1924 the Rikken Seiyukai split over whether or not to support him. Kisaburo Suzuki, the husband of Hatoyama's elder sister Kazuko, served as Minister of Justice in the new cabinet. Hatoyama participated in the Seiyūhontō organised by pro-Kiyoura forces led by Takejirō Tokonami. In June Kiyoura had to resign in favour of Takaaki Kato, who had formed a coalition of his own Kenseikai, the Seiyukai and the Kakushin Club. Seiyūhontō became the main opposition.