is a Japanese politician of 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 a former 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 ...

in the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

(national legislature).

Biography

A native of

Tōbetsu, Hokkaido is a town located in Ishikari, Hokkaido, Japan. As of September 2016, the town has an estimated population of 16,694, and a density of 39 persons per km2. The total area is 422.71 km2. Geography Located in the north part of Ishikari Subp ...

and graduate of 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 ...

, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1993. Arai had worked in the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

and in the office of former Governor of Hokkaido

Takahiro Yokomichi is a Japanese politician who belongs to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and was a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Sapporo, Hokkaidō and graduate of the University of Tokyo, he was electe ...

, before resigning in 1993 to run in that year's

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. Arai managed to win a seat in his native Hokkaido and entered the House of Representatives, marking the start of his political career. A

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

politician, Arai has always been affiliated with centre-left parties, even in the turbulent Japanese political landscape where parties boom and bust and alliances change often. Arai lost in his first contest for the

Hokkaido 3rd district is a single-member electoral district for the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. It is located in the prefecture ''(-dō)'' of Hokkaidō and consists of three wards ''(-ku)'' of the prefectural capital, th ...

in 1996, but won the district in 2000. Since then, Arai would win another three times (2003, 2009 and 2017) and lost three times (2005, 2012 and 2014) in this seat. As his vote share was still considerably high in the races he lost, he always managed to return to the diet via the PR list. Arai had run in a seat outside the Diet once. He quit his seat mid-term in 2007 to run for the

2007 Hokkaido gubernatorial election A gubernatorial election was held on 8 April 2007 to elect the Governor of Hokkaido Prefecture. Candidates *Harumi Takahashi - incumbent governor of Hokkaido, age 53. *Satoshi Arai is a Japanese politician of the Constitutional Democratic P ...

against incumbent

Harumi Takahashi is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and currently a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature). She served as governor of the prefecture of Hokkaido for four terms from 2003 to 2019. She graduat ...

, but lost. Two years outside Parliament, he ran again in his old seat in 2009, defeating incumbent Gaku Ishizaki by a large margin in an election that brought his party into government. Subsequent Prime Ministers

Yukio Hatoyama is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 16 September 2009 to 8 June 2010. He was the first Prime Minister from the modern Democratic Party of Japan. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1986, Hatoy ...

and

Naoto Kan is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to serve for m ...

would bring Arai into their administrations. He served as a Special Adviser in the Hatoyama government and Minister of State in the Kan government. After leaving the Cabinet, Arai served in several Diet committees. Arai is also a staunch opponent of the closures of

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to using its official abbreviation of . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a sm ...

's local routes. In 2016, he led a pressure campaign against the closure, forcing Governor Takahashi to launch a review into the policy. In June 2021 he announced his retirement from politics. His son,

Yutaka Arai is a Japanese politician of the CDP and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet representing the Hokkaido proportional representation block. Career Yutaka was born in Chiba. From the first to the third grade of elementary school ...

, unsuccessfully ran for his old seat in the

2021 elections Many elections occurred in 2021. The National Democratic Institute maintains calendar of elections around the world * 2021 United Nations Security Council election * 2021 national electoral calendar * 2021 local electoral calendar Africa * 2021 ...

, but won a seat in the

Hokkaido proportional representation block The or in official usage the "Hokkaidō electoral district" (北海道選挙区, ''Hokkaidō senkyo-ku'') is one of eleven proportional representation (PR) blocks for the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan. It consists of Hokkaidō and ...

References

External links

Official website
in Japanese. {{DEFAULTSORT:Arai, Satoshi 1946 births Living people Politicians from Hokkaido Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan politicians Democratic Party of Japan politicians 21st-century Japanese politicians