resigning from politics, but he made a full recovery after undergoing surgery. Ozawa joined the political faction led by Kakuei Tanaka, which then supported Prime Minister Eisaku Satō. Ozawa became one of Tanaka's closest allies in the Diet. After Tanaka was charged in the Lockheed bribery scandals, Ozawa was the only faction member who attended each of Tanaka's 191 court dates; Ozawa later commented that "the man in power of the day, who took care of me, was made to sit on a bench all day long and I couldn't bear if he was there alone with nobody around;" he also characterized Tanaka as a "scapegoat" on the basis that other politicians were involved in similar activity. Ozawa was appointed to lead the LDP's election strategy in the 1983 general election, the first to employ a closed list system, and led the effort to elect Sadakazu Tanigaki and Hiromu Nonaka to fill open seats representing Kyoto Prefecture. By the 1980s, he became one of the popular young leaders in the LDP, along with Tsutomu Hata and Ryutaro Hashimoto, both of whom were later elected as prime ministers, in the Tanaka/Takeshita faction. His rivalry with Hashimoto was particularly prominent, being dubbed the Ichi-Ryu War by the press. After long service on key parliamentary committees, Ozawa's first ministerial appointment was in 1985 when he took on the Home Affairs portfolio under Yasuhiro Nakasone. Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone was impressed with his negotiation skills, particularly his ability to persuade opposition parties to pass difficult consumption tax legislation. Ozawa's skill in behind-the-scenes maneuvers led to a meteoric rise in power within the LDP, although there were also many factions who turned against him. Senior leaders resented having to appeal to the much younger Ozawa for support. (Kiichi Miyazawa, twenty years his senior, once addressed Ozawa as "Great Secretary General" in a leadership meeting). Ozawa's reputation for organisation was soon matched by his reputation as a young upstart. Takeshita faction (1987–1993) Ozawa joined the group led by Noboru Takeshita that left the Tanaka faction in 1987, shortly before Kakuei Tanaka suffered a stroke and was incapacitated. He became one of the key members of the faction, along with Keizo Obuchi and Ryutaro Hashimoto, both of whom later served as prime ministers. Ozawa became deputy chairman of the Takeshita faction under Shin Kanemaru's leadership, and became LDP Secretary General from 1989 to 1991. By 1991 Takeshita,