Often when the “oldest living state leader” dies it’s just some guy who was in charge of Guyana for two months in 1968, but this time out we’ve got a cadaver with a legit claim to historical importance. Yasuhiro Nakasone was prime minister of Japan between 1982 and 1987, a period where it finally threw off the stereotypes of isolationist Nippon and embraced other superpowers on both sides of the divide: ramping up international relations with China and the USSR, and becoming Ronald Reagan’s most enthusiastic supporter on the world stage. The “Ronyasu” diplomatic coupling was best exemplified by his ramping up of Japan’s military spending, an increasing of nationalistic pride and the privatization of the country’s railways, leading to an unheard-of 80,000 redundancies in the country that had traditionally offered its workers jobs for life.
Yasuhiro Nakasone
27 May 1918 – 29 November 2019
Died aged 101 (eight picks, one joker)