Sadanori Yamanaka, 82; Ex-Trade Chief in Japan Known for Tax

Sadanori Yamanaka, 82, a former trade minister of Japan known as “Mr. Consumption Tax” for his efforts to draft a national sales tax, died of pneumonia Friday at a Tokyo hospital. He had been hospitalized since the first of the year for treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure.

Yamanaka, a lawmaker in the lower house of Japan’s parliament, led the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s tax commission for eight years starting in 1979.

That board drew up a government plan for a 3% consumption -- or sales -- tax, which took effect April 1, 1989, and earned Yamanaka his nickname.

A native of Kagoshima Prefecture, Yamanaka graduated from teachers training college in Taipei, Taiwan, and became a reporter for the Minami-Nippon Shimbun. He entered local politics at the age of 25, winning a seat in the Kagoshima prefectural assembly.

In 1953, he was elected to the lower house of the national parliament. He served the lower house of the Diet for 48 years and won 17 elections. In 1990, the unpopular consumption tax cost him his seat, but he regained it three years later.

Yamanaka was the most senior lawmaker in both houses of the Diet.

He held several key posts in his party and in the Cabinet, including defense agency chief from May 1973 to November 1974 and minister of International Trade and Industry from November 1982 to June 1983.

Peter Carni, 69; Shot Photographs of Pop Stars, Politicians