is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He was the

Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. The minister is nominated by the Prime Minister of Japan and is appointed by the Emperor of Japan. Minister Katsunobu Ka ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(2006–2007), and was a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 1980 to 2009. His constituency was

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

3rd District. In January 2007, he drew criticism for describing women as "birth-giving machines" and "baby making devices" in a speech on the falling

birthrate The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...

of Japan. He said later "it was extremely sound to have more than two children". He believes in

Tenrikyo is a Japanese new religion which is neither strictly monotheistic nor pantheistic, originating from the teachings of a 19th-century woman named Nakayama Miki, known to her followers as "Oyasama". Followers of Tenrikyo believe that God of Origin, ...

Career

He is from the city of

Fukuroi 270px, Shizuoka Stadium is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 88,395 in 34,842 households, and a population density of 820 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Fukuroi is a me ...

. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in 1961. In 1980 he was elected to the

for the first time, and has been elected eight times since. He was the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs from July 1994 until August 1995, and the Chairman of the Committee on Health and Welfare from March 1998 to July 1998. In July 1998 he was appointed to be the Minister of State for the National Land Agency by Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Keizō Obuchi, and became the Minister of State for Financial Reconstruction in October of that year. He was the Minister of State and Chairman of the Financial Reconstruction Commission from December 1998 to October 1999. He then reprised that role from December 2000 to January 2001. He was the Minister of State for Financial Services from January 2001 to September 2002, when he stepped down due to a disagreement with the minister in charge of economic policy, economic and fiscal policy, Heizō Takenaka. He was the Chairman of the Research Commission on the Tax System for the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP from November 2005 to September 2006. He became the

in September 2006.
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare
' (27 January 2007, 22:48 GMT) He was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, belonging specifically to the Kōchikai (''Koga'' faction). In August 2009, Yanagisawa ran for reelection to represent Shizuoka's 3rd district House of Representatives, but was defeated by Nobuhiro Koyama. Yanagisawa thereafter retired from politics and accepted a post as the president of Josai International University.

References

, - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Yanagisawa, Hakuo 1935 births Living people Politicians from Shizuoka Prefecture University of Tokyo alumni Tenrikyo Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Ministers of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians 21st-century Japanese politicians