Japan’s former PM Yasuo Fukuda, proponent of ties with China, dies at 90

TOKYO — Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who led the country for just one year and spent years afterward trying to build better ties with China, has died, officials said Monday. He was 90. He died Thursday, the governing Liberal Democratic Party said, without disclosing further details. Born in 1936, Fukuda grew up in a political family in Gunma, northwest of Tokyo. His father Takeo Fukuda also served as prime minister and worked to build Tokyo’s ties with Beijing. After graduating from Waseda University in Tokyo, Yasuo Fukuda worked for a Japanese oil company for more than 17 years…