Tokyo, Sept. 17 (Jiji Press)–The following are profiles of the new members of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s cabinet, reshuffled Thursday: Hisayuki Fujii, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Hisayuki Fujii, 55, joined the Home Affairs Ministry, now the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, in 1995 after graduating from the University of Tokyo. Fujii is a close aide to former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Under the Suga administration, he supported Taro Kono, then minister in charge of Japan’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, as state minister at the Cabinet Office. Before Fujii secured a parliamentary seat for the first time in the 2012 election for the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, he served as deputy mayor of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, and engaged in promotional activities for the city’s white cat mascot, “Hikonyan.” Takashi Yamashita, Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita, 61, was appointed justice minister again, eight years after being tapped for the post under the administration of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2018. During his first term, Yamashita played a key role in the establishment of the Immigration Services Agency to help the country accept more foreign workers. Yamashita worked as a public prosecutor before making his debut in national politics in 2012. Yoshihiro Seki, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Seki, 61, won his first parliamentary seat in the 2005 general election, which took place after then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the Lower House over postal privatization. Seki belonged to a faction led by Abe and worked to develop the semiconductor and other cutting-edge technology sectors, as well as small and midsize businesses. He has steadily built his political career, serving as state minister of the environment and state minister of economy, trade and industry. However, he was involved in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s slush fund scandal and was reprimanded by the party in 2024. Kazuo Yana, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Yana, 47, served as a working-level representative of the LDP in talks with the Japan Innovation Party, the LDP’s coalition partner, to enact a bill to create a secondary capital in Japan by transferring some government functions from Tokyo. As deliberations on the bill stalled during the last Diet session, Yana booed a JIP lawmaker who called for a substantial extension of the session. Over the LDP’s slush fund scandal, Yana was suspended from party posts for six months. In this year’s Lower House election, he lost in his constituency to an LDP member who ran independently, but secured a proportional representation seat. Tatsunori Ibayashi, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism The eldest son of a tea farmer in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, Ibayashi, 50, studied engineering at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Engineering before joining the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in 2002. He handled road administration before deciding to leave the ministry at the age of 34 to begin his political career, with an aim to contribute to his hometown. He was first elected to the Lower House in 2012. Last year, when he was chairman of the Lower House Financial Affairs Committee, he became the first parliamentary committee chief under the current Constitution to have a motion to dismiss passed against him. The move came amid a confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties over a bill to abolish the provisional gasoline tax surcharge. As head of the ministry he used to work for, Ibayashi is set to lead efforts to ensure the safe navigation of oil tankers amid heightened tensions in the Middle East. He played baseball and basketball during his school years. Hiroyoshi Sasagawa, Environment Minister Sasagawa, 60, was first elected to the Lower House in 2012 after losing three parliamentary elections and serving as a member of the Gunma prefectural assembly in eastern Japan. His father, Takashi, served as head of the LDP’s General Council. Sasagawa previously led an LDP task force on measures to address bear attacks and worked to strengthen countermeasures, compiling an emergency proposal last autumn following a series of bear attacks across the country. A close aide to Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Sasagawa was a leading advocate of calls for then Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to step down after the LDP’s poor showing in the 2024 election for the Senate, the upper chamber of parliament. However, some criticized his actions because he was part of the government at the time, serving as state minister for agriculture, forestry and fisheries. He commutes to Tokyo almost daily from his home in Ota in Gunma. Toshiharu Furukawa, Minister for Digital Transformation Furukawa, 63, is a qualified doctor and lawyer who graduated from Keio University’s schools of medicine, letters and law. He also earned an MBA from the University of Oxford. He engaged in research on medical robots. Furukawa decided to become a politician because he thought that the true potential of the Japanese people would not be recognized if Japan was left behind by other advanced economies. His parliamentary questions are praised for not allowing hecklers to interrupt. Alongside his political activities, the senator serves as a professor at Keio University. He is a cousin of Sam, a dancer in the Japanese pop band TRF. Goshi Hosono, Minister for Reconstruction Hosono, 55, served as minister in charge of responding to the 2011 tsunami-triggered Fukushima nuclear accident and as environment minister under the Democratic Party of Japan-led administration. He will now work for reconstruction in areas affected by the disaster. Hosono left the former Democratic Party and joined the Party of Hope in 2017. He later chose not to join the Democratic Party for the People and was admitted to the LDP in 2021. Even before joining the LDP, he was a special member of an LDP faction led by former party heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai. Currently, he is a member of a group led by former internal affairs minister Ryota Takeda. Hosono enjoys working out in his spare time. He was involved in a sexual scandal in the past. Yasuhiro Hanashi, National Public Safety Commission Chairman Hanashi, 66, a former police bureaucrat, entered politics after winning his first election to the Lower House in 2003. He specializes in public security and crisis management and has worked on a lawmaker-sponsored bill to combat telephone scams. His experience in these areas helped pave the way for his return to the cabinet as chairman of the National Public Safety Commission. Hanashi previously served as justice minister under former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. He was forced to step down from the ministerial post after facing criticism over a gaffe in which he described the role of justice minister as an unspectacular position whose holder makes headlines only when approving executions. His father-in-law, Nobuyuki Hanashi, served as minister for home affairs, a post that later became minister for internal affairs and communications. Hanashi has written books, including one on juvenile delinquency. His hobbies include reading and jogging. Hiroshi Nakatsuka, Minister for Policies Related to Children Nakatsuka, 70, was first elected to the Lower House in 2021. He was a political journalist for the Sankei Shimbun daily who covered the administration of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in the 1980s, and a member of the Osaka prefectural assembly in western Japan and mayor of the city of Hirakata in Osaka. With extensive administrative experience, Nakatsuka became secretary-general of the JIP last August after being elected to the Lower House for a second term. Following the formation of the Takaichi administration, he worked with his LDP counterpart, Shunichi Suzuki, to coordinate policies and manage parliamentary affairs. His steady approach and other qualities were cited in his selection as the first JIP member to join the cabinet. Nakatsuka is known for his mild-mannered personality. He was convicted and given a suspended sentence in a bid-rigging case that occurred while he was Hirakata mayor. He enjoys reading. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
