is a Japanese politician and the current

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of Iwate Prefecture. He is a native of

Morioka is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 February 2021, the city had an estimated population of 290,700 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . G ...

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 b ...

Biography

Tasso joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1988, receiving a master's degree in

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

in the United States while with the ministry. In 1996, he was elected to 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) for the first time as a member of the New Frontier Party and subsequently served as a diet member for the

Democratic Party of Japan The was a centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to centre-left liberal or social-liberal political party in Japan from 1998 to 2016. The party's origins lie in the previous Democratic ...

. He was first elected governor of Iwate prefecture in 2007 and as of 2012 is in his second four-year term. On July 9, 2012 he announced that he would sever his ties with the DPJ and join Putting People's Lives First, the new party led by Ichiro Ozawa.

References

External links

* 1964 births Living people People from Morioka, Iwate University of Tokyo alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) New Frontier Party (Japan) politicians 20th-century Japanese politicians 21st-century Japanese politicians Governors of Iwate Prefecture {{Japan-politician-1960s-stub Politicians from Iwate Prefecture