Teijirō Furukawa was born on 11 September 1934, to a family of farmers in Kasuga Village in Saga Prefecture.

In September the following year he passed the national civil service examination and in January 1960 he joined the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

[5][6] In February 1995 Furukawa was appointed Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for administrative affairs, to succeed Nobuo Ishihara who was retiring to run in the 1995 Tokyo gubernatorial election.

Immediately after his appointment Furukawa was in charge of inter-ministerial coordination for recovery after the Great Hanshin earthquake.

[7] He retired in September 2003, having served five Prime Ministers: Tomiichi Murayama, Ryutaro Hashimoto, Keizo Obuchi, Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi.