Following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, Miyazawa lived at his grandfather Ogawa Heikichi's villa Kasuian in Hiratsuka.

At the time, his father Yutaka worked for Yamashita Kisen, whilst planning to move his political career from Hiroshima Prefecture to the National Diet.

[3] While at university, Miyazawa travelled to attend the Japan-America Student Conference in Washington D.C. in the United States in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War.

[3] His government passed a law allowing Japan to send its forces overseas for peacekeeping missions as well as negotiating a trade agreement with the United States.

Miyazawa resigned in 1993 after losing a vote of no confidence marking an end to 38 years of Liberal Democratic Party government.

Miyazawa later returned to frontbench politics when he was once again appointed finance minister from 1998 to 2001 in the governments of Keizō Obuchi and Yoshirō Mori.

[3][12] The reason for his retirement was that then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi set an age limit of 73 for LDP political candidates.