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 ...

and attorney. He is 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 ...

belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party (6th term), Deputy Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party and Chairman of the Federation of Saitama Prefecture Liberal Democratic Party. He served as

Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The minister is nominated by the Prime Minister of Japan and is appointed by the Emperor of Japa ...

from October 2018 to September 2019.

Early life

He was born in

Nagoya, Aichi 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 grew up in

Saitama Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture ...

. He graduated from 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 ...

and joined Sumitomo Real Estate in 1990, but resigned thereafter to study for the Japanese bar examination, which he passed in 1998. In 2000, he was admitted as an attorney and joined the Toranomon Chuo Law Firm in Tokyo.

Political career

He was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 2004, in a special election in Saitama to replace Masanori Arai, who had been arrested for campaign finance violations. He was re-elected the following year in the Japanese general election. In 2008, he was named Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister

Yasuo Fukuda is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2007 to 2008. He was previously the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in Japanese history, serving in that role from 2000 to 2004 under Prime Ministers Yoshirō M ...

and maintained this post under the cabinet of

Taro Aso Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Africa ...

. Shibayama lost his Saitama seat to a DPJ candidate in the 2009 general election, but picked up a Kanto bloc seat and remained a member of the House of Representatives. After the LDP returned to power in the 2012 general election, he was named Senior Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications in the second

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), President of the Lib ...

cabinet. He also serves as a "special advisor" to the prime minister, acting as a spokesman for the Abe government with regard to its fiscal stimulus policies, and argued in 2016 that "doubling the number of foreign workers

n Japan N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

cannot be avoided in this global market situation."

Family

Shibayama is married and has one daughter.

References

External links

* in Japanese. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shibayama, Masahiko 1965 births Living people People from Nagoya University of Tokyo alumni 21st-century Japanese lawyers Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians 21st-century Japanese politicians Education ministers of Japan Culture ministers of Japan Science ministers of Japan Sports ministers of Japan Technology ministers of Japan