Former Top Japan Bureaucrat Furukawa Dies at 87

Tokyo, Sept. 5 (Jiji Press)--Teijiro Furukawa, who served as deputy chief cabinet secretary for administrative affairs for eight years and seven months, the second-longest tenure for Japan's top administrative post, died at a Tokyo hospital Monday. He was 87.

During the tenure, Furukawa served five prime ministers from Tomiichi Murayama to Junichiro Koizumi.

After graduating from Kyushu University, Furukawa worked at the prefectural government of Nagasaki, southwestern Japan, and joined the health ministry in 1960, where he served in such posts as chief of the health insurance bureau and administrative vice minister.

In February 1995, he became deputy chief cabinet secretary under Murayama's administration and served four more prime ministers successively, namely Ryutaro Hashimoto, Keizo Obuchi, Yoshiro Mori and Koizumi.

As top bureaucrat, he worked for reconstruction of areas devastated by the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in western Japan, the construction of the new prime minister's office and the realignment of government ministries and agencies.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]