Kakuei Tanaka
Hosokawa received his LL.B. degree from Sophia University in 1961. After working for the newspaper "Asahi Shimbun" as journalist for five years, he made an unsuccessful run in the 1969 general election. He was elected to the House of Councillors of Japan as an LDP representative of Kumamoto Prefecture in 1971, with his campaign funded by party boss Kakuei Tanaka.