Yuichiro Haneda, a Constitutional Democratic Party senator who was the Minister of Land and Transport under the former Democratic Party of Japan, died in a hospital in Tokyo on the afternoon of the 27th at the age of 53. Haneda is a native of Nagano Prefecture and the eldest son of the late former Prime Minister Shizu Haneda.
According to Haneda’s office and relevant people of the Constitutional Democratic Party, Haneda began to show fever and other symptoms two or three days ago, and his condition suddenly deteriorated on the way to a hospital in Tokyo on the afternoon of the 27th.
[Kyodo News Agency, Tokyo, December 28] Tetsuro Fukuyama, the director of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, revealed to the press corps on the 28th that the party’s senator and former Minister of territorial transportation, Yuichiro Haneda, who died suddenly “the direct cause of death was the novel coronavirus epidemic”. Haneda was diagnosed after his death. This is the first sitting congressman to die of COVID-19. Haneda began to have a fever late at night on the 24th. It is reported that he applied for a test online on the 25th, but the appointment he got was on the afternoon of the 27th.
According to Fukuyama, Haneda was unable to speak after his secretary was driving to deliver, saying “I may be pneumonia”. The secretary stopped to arrange an ambulance. After Haneda was taken to the hospital, he was confirmed dead at 4:34 p.m. It is reported that Haneda suffers from diabetes, hypertension and other basic diseases.
Haneda consulted the Senate clinic through his secretary on the morning of the 24th to the hospital that can be tested, citing that “nearby people” tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Yukio Edano, the head of the Constitutional Democratic Party, told the press corps of Haneda’s sudden death in the National Assembly that “had a great impact and lost important partners”.
