Word: fathered
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Akihito too took up his imperial duties. Dressed in a morning coat, he gave an audience to 243 government officials and their spouses. Speaking in ordinary Japanese rather than the stylized court language favored by his father at his accession, Akihito promised to follow Japan's 1947 democratic constitution...
When the elder Tsutsumi died in 1964, the two brothers inherited dramatically different amounts and parts of their father's empire, parts that fit their sharply divergent personalities and amounts that apparently reflected the feelings between father and sons. The cultured and mild-mannered Seiji, the son of Yasujiro's wife Misao, has established himself as a novelist and an award-winning poet whose early literary work sometimes suggested filial embarrassment and even enmity...
Yoshiaki's life took a less refined path. His mother was one of Yasujiro's mistresses. This illegitimate son was the favorite, and he still praises his father as "the greatest entrepreneur I've ever met." While Seiji was merely given control of a money-losing department store, Yoshiaki inherited not only the railway and real estate portions of the empire but also his father's political clout: he is close to Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, for example, and backed him in his fight for the leadership in 1987. A rugged sportsman who owns the national-champion baseball team...
Originally, Yoshiaki was thought to have more of his father's no-holds- barred business acumen, but Seiji showed prescience and boldness in leading the Seibu stores to the forefront of Japanese retailing. The increasingly astute businessman predicted that young, affluent Japanese would spend more than their parents and guessed that they would prefer high-priced, stylish goods. Seiji's rise has not been totally smooth. In the mid-1970s Yoshiaki rescued his half brother from ruin when the Seibu Kanko Kaihatsu company, a leisure, real estate and tourism group, incurred debts of $550 million. The terms of the rescue...
Seiji has been one-upped in some family matters as well. One can imagine his frustration when, in 1964, the younger, illegitimate Yoshiaki broke tradition and presided over their father's funeral as chief mourner. Twenty years later, when the funeral of Yoshiaki's mother was held at Tokyo's Zojo-Ji temple, a blimp reportedly flew overhead publicizing a newly opened store belonging to Seiji's group...