is a Japanese

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

from the

Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan The (CDP or CDPJ) is a social-liberal political party in Japan. It was founded in October 2017 as a split from the Democratic Party ahead of the 2017 general election. In late 2020, the party was re-founded following a merger with majoritie ...

, and served as the Vice Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan from 2017 to 2021.

Life and career

Hirotaka Akamatsu and James Zumwalt 20100309

A native of

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

and graduate of

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

, he was elected to the first of his three terms in the

Aichi Prefectural Assembly The is the legislative assembly of Aichi Prefecture. Its 103 members are elected in 57 districts by single non-transferable vote (SNTV) to four-year terms. The assembly is responsible for enacting and amending prefectural ordinances, voting on ...

and then to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1990 as a member of the

Japan Socialist Party The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...

. He was appointed Minister of Agriculture in 2009. In April 2010, he skipped the traditional visit by legislators to

Ise Jingu The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . The Inner ...

, opting instead to take a holiday in Mexico with his wife. While he was on vacation, Japan suffered a large outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. His response to the outbreak was widely criticized and the Ministry of Agriculture apologized on his behalf on May 31. The Hatoyama government collapsed in June and Akamatsu was not reappointed. Akamatsu is the current Vice Speaker 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 ...

. He was also previously Vice Speaker between 2012 and 2014.

References

External links

Official website
in Japanese. Members of the House of Representatives from Aichi Prefecture Members of the Aichi Prefectural Assembly Living people 1956 births People from Nagoya Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan politicians Democratic Party of Japan politicians Social Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Ministers of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan Waseda University alumni 21st-century Japanese politicians {{Japan-politician-1950s-stub