ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Tanaka Kakuei and Ōhira Masayoshi, the two most prominent Japanese leaders involved in normalizing relations with China, by describing their careers and their very different personalities and approaches to leadership. Tanaka was a gregarious and eloquent politician who managed to work his way into leadership despite a modest educational background. By comparison, Ōhira was a former elite official of the finance ministry. Reserved and intellectual, he was a poor public speaker but skilled at formulating policy. The two had been close political allies and friends for years, and this chapter focuses on their relationship while also providing background information on Japanese politics and foreign policy in the period leading up to Tanaka becoming prime minister.
