Michita Sakata

Michita Sakata
坂田 道太
Sakata in 1968
Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office 24 January 1985 – 2 June 1986
Monarch	Hirohito
Preceded by	Kenji Fukunaga
Succeeded by	Kenzaburō Hara
40th Minister of Justice
In office 30 November 1981 – 27 November 1982
Cabinet	Zenkō Suzuki Reformed Cabinet
Preceded by	Seisuke Okuno
Succeeded by	Akira Hatano
33rd Director-General of the Defense Agency
In office 12 September 1974 – 24 December 1976
Cabinet	Takeo Miki Cabinet Takeo Miki Reformed Cabinet
91st/92nd Minister of Education
In office 30 November 1968 – 5 July 1971
Cabinet	Eisaku Satō II Second Reformed Cabinet Eisaku Satō III
Preceded by	Hirokichi Nadao
Succeeded by	Saburo Takami
33rd Minister of Health and Welfare
In office 12 January 1959 – 18 June 1959
Preceded by	Ryogo Hashimoto
Succeeded by	Yoshio Watanabe
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 11 April 1946 – 24 January 1990
Constituency	Kumamoto (now Kumamoto 2nd district)
Personal details
Born	(1916-07-18)18 July 1916 Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan
Died	13 January 2004(2004-01-13) (aged 87)
Political party	Democratic Liberal Liberal (1945) Liberal (1950) Liberal Democratic
Parent	Michio Sakata (father)
Alma mater	Tokyo Imperial University Faculty of Letters
Awards	Junior Second Rank Order of the Paulownia Flowers

Michita Sakata (Japanese: 坂田 道太; 18 July 1916 – 13 January 2004) was a Japanese politician and member of the House of Representatives of Japan. Throughout his career, he served as the Minister of Education, Head of the Defense Agency, Minister of Justice, Minister of Health and Welfare, and Speaker of the House of Representatives.^[1]

Sakata's prolific career spanned over 40 years, beginning in 1946 and ending in his retirement in 1990, being reelected 16 times to the House of Representatives. He is most known for his role in the suppression of the 1968-69 Japanese university protests as Minister of Education,^[2] as well as for his tenure as the Director of the Defense Agency, when he helped write the National Defense Program Outline and set guidelines for US-Japan cooperation.