Noboru Takeshita
A native of Tokyo, Fujii was born on 24 June 1932. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1955 with a law degree. He began his career as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance, which gave him authority on finance and tax system issues later in his legislative career. Toward the end of his time at the ministry, he served as an assistant to Chief Cabinet Secretaries Susumu Nikaido and Noboru Takeshita.