Toshitsugu Saito was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party who served seven terms in the House of Representatives for Shizuoka Prefecture and was Director General of the Japan Defense Agency, the forerunner of today's Ministry of Defense. He died of acute myeloid leukemia at a hospital in Tokyo on 3 October 2026, aged 81. His death was made public on 8 October.
He was born on 27 December 1944, the second son of Ryoei Saito, the second president of the paper maker Daishowa Paper Manufacturing, and grew up in a family with deep roots in Fuji, Shizuoka. His grandfather Chiichiro Saito founded Daishowa, and his uncle Shigeyoshi Saito was Governor of Shizuoka and Minister of Construction. After Kojimachi Junior High School and Musashi High School, he graduated in economics from Sophia University in 1968, studied at Waseda University's school of science and engineering, and earned an MBA at the University of Washington in 1972.
In 1984 he became the 33rd president of the Japan Junior Chamber, and in that role sat on Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's ad hoc council on education reform, where he championed a five year primary and four year lower secondary school system. He also developed a lasting interest in relations with Russia, privately funding an animated film about friendship between the two countries.
Succeeding his uncle, he was first elected to the House of Representatives in the 1986 general election and was re elected six consecutive times. He served as parliamentary vice minister for posts and telecommunications in 1992, chaired the party's telecommunications division during the restructuring of NTT, and chaired House committees on commerce and industry and on local administration. A loyal member of the Tanaka and Takeshita faction lineage, he stayed in the party in 1993 when many colleagues left with Tsutomu Hata and Ichiro Ozawa.
On 5 December 2000 he entered the cabinet for the first time as Director General of the Japan Defense Agency in Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's reshuffled government, overseeing work on the medium term defense buildup plan. In 2003 he chaired the special House committee that approved the dispatch of the Self Defense Forces to Iraq. He also helped pass the law promoting culture and the arts and led sports and scouting groups.
He lost his seat in the 2009 general election and retired from politics the next day. In 2015 he received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.
lit a candle 3h ago
