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 ...

of the Liberal Democratic Party who served as the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and as 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 ...

the

Hokkaido 2nd 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 Sapporo, the prefectural capital of Hokkaido and consists of the Higashi ("East") ward and most of the Kit ...

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 ...

. A native of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

who grew up in

Yoichi, Hokkaido is a town located in the Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Demographics As of September 2018, the population of Yoichi has dropped to 18,993 people, a drop of 10% over less than a decade. The density is 160 persons per km². The total a ...

and a graduate of

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

, he was elected to the first of his three terms in the assembly of Hokkaido in 1979 and then to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1996. He represented the

. On October 2, 2018, Yoshikawa took office as the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to September 11, 2019. In late 2020, Yoshikawa was accused of accepting multiple

bribe Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...

s totalling million from Hiroshima-based Akita Foods between October 2018 and September 2019, during his time as agriculture minister. On 21December 2020, Yoshikawa announced his resignation from the Diet, citing health reasons and saying he "will not be able to carry out activities that will fulfill the mandate of the people". Opposition

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 majori ...

secretary general Tetsuro Fukuyama said he "feel it is wrong to resign without a single explanation concerning the allegations".

References

External links

Official website
in Japanese. Living people 1950 births Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Nihon University alumni 21st-century Japanese politicians Politicians from Tokyo People from Yoichi, Hokkaido {{Japan-politician-1950s-stub