Tsutomu Hata

Infobox Prime Minister | name = Tsutomu Hata
nationality = Japanese


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order = 80th Prime Minister of Japan
term_start = April 28, 1994
term_end = June 30, 1994
vicepresident =
predecessor = Morihiro Hosokawa
successor = Tomiichi Murayama
birth_date = birth date and age|1935|08|24
birth_place = Tokyo, Japan
death_date =
death_place =
party = Democratic Party of Japan
spouse = Ayako Hata
nicknames =
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nihongo|Tsutomu Hata|羽田 孜|Hata Tsutomu|extra=b. August 24, 1935 is a Japanese politician and was the 80th Prime Minister of Japan for several weeks in 1994.

He was born in Tokyo, a son of the Liberal Democratic Party Member of Parliament Bushiro Hata. Hata graduated from Seijo University and was employed by the Odakyu bus company from 1958 to 1969. In 1969, he entered the House of Representatives of Japan, representing Nagano Prefecture as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He rose to become a top lieutenant in the Tanaka/Takeshita faction in the 1980s.

He left the LDP in 1993 to found the Japan Renewal Party with longtime LDP ally Ichirō Ozawa, which became part of Morihiro Hosokawa's anti-LDP coalition government later that year. Hata served as foreign minister in the Hosokawa cabinet.

On April 28 1994, Hosokawa resigned and Hata became prime minister. However, the Japan Socialist Party had recently left the coalition, destroying its majority in the Diet. Rather than face a vote of no confidence, Hata elected to resign in June, allowing SDP leader Tomiichi Murayama to take over the position on June 30.

After the Shinseito merged into the Shinshinto in 1996, Hata contested the leadership against Ichiro Ozawa. After losing this contest, he and twelve other Diet members formed the splinter Sun Party (太陽党 Taiyōtō). The Sun Party in January 1998 became a part of the Good Governance Party which itself was subsumed by the
Democratic Party of Japan in April 1998. Hata remains with the DPJ where he is currently "supreme advisor" to chairman Ichirō Ozawa.

Hata's son, Yuichiro, is a member of the House of Councillors of Japan.