Born in 1947, he graduated from Stanford University in the United States and is a Japanese politician and former Prime Minister of Japan. He currently serves as Chairman of the East Asia Community Institute. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1986, he founded the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 1996 and assumed its leadership. On August 30, 2009, he led the DPJ to a historic victory in the House of Representatives election, marking the end of the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) prolonged governance. On September 16 of the same year, he was elected as the 93rd Prime Minister of Japan (the 60th individual to hold the office). He resigned as Prime Minister on June 2, 2010, and announced his retirement from politics on November 21, 2012. In January 2013, he visited the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, where he apologized for the atrocities committed by the Japanese military during its invasion of China. Advocating the philosophy of "fraternity," he proposed "fraternal diplomacy" and promoted a foreign policy of "coexistence and mutual prosperity while acknowledging the differing values among nations."