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 ...

of 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 Part ...

, a fmember of the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...

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). A native of

Isahaya, Nagasaki is a Cities of Japan, city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on September 1, 1940. As of November 1, 2022, the city has an estimated population of 132,385 and a population density of 389 persons per km². The total area ...

and graduate of

Nagasaki University is a national university of Japan. Its nickname is ''Chōdai'' (). The main campus is located in Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. History Nagasaki University was established in 1949 by incorporating several nation ...

, he had served in the assembly of

Nagasaki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,314,078 (1 June 2020) and has a geographic area of 4,130 Square kilometre, km2 (1,594 sq mi). Nagasaki Prefecture borders ...

since 2003. After running unsuccessfully for 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 2005, he was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in 2007.

History

Okubo was born in Isahaya City,

on 12 March 1966. He grew up there, attending and graduating from Isahaya Junior High and Isahaya High School. Soon after, he pursued a career in Dentistry, graduating from Nagasaki University's School of Dentistry in 1994. After working at several dental clinics around

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

and

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

, Okubo opened his own dental clinic in

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders S ...

which he ran for several years. in 2002, Okubo attended and graduated from the first class of the Ichiro Ozawa Political School, and in the following year he ran for and was elected as an independent for the

Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

in the Isahaya City district. In 2005, he resigned from his position in order to contest Nagasaki's 2nd district as a candidate for the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

in the 2005 general election, but was defeated by the

Liberal Democratic Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into diff ...

incumbent representative

Fumio Kyūma is a Japanese politician who has served in the Diet of Japan since 1980. Kyuma graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1964 and worked for the Ministry of Agriculture. He was elected to the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly in 1971 serving three ...

. As a result, he ran in and won the 2006 by-election for the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly, though he would again resign from this position to be the Democratic Party candidate for the Nagasaki district in the 2007 House of Councillors election, managing to defeat the

candidate Tadatoshi Komine and take the seat. In 2009, he travelled to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

as a member of the

Ozawa Ozawa (written: or lit. "small swamp") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Eitaro Ozawa (1909-1988), Japanese actor *Ichirō Ozawa (born 1942), Japanese politician *Hideaki Ozawa (born 1974), Japanese football goalkee ...

delegation alongside 142 other

members of the

National Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...

. In 2013, Okubo ran for re-election to the Nagasaki district,but was defeated by newcomer Yūichirō Koga by a wide margin. In the following year, Okuba again ran as a Democratic Party candidate for Nagasaki's 2nd District in the 2014 general election, but lost by over 20k votes to incumbent Liberal Democratic candidate

Kanji Kato are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequent ...

. In 2015, Okuba ran for and won the Isahaya City seat in the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly as an independent, and in 2019 he won his re-election to that same seat. However, on 15 January 2021, Okuba announced that he would be running that years Mayoral elections for his homecity of Ishihaya as an independent, eventually defeating incumbent mayor Akio Miyamoto (endorsed by the Liberal Democratic Party) and Takeshi Yamamura, a former employee of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

Election Results

References

External links

* in Japanese. Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) Living people 1966 births Democratic Party of Japan politicians {{Japan-politician-1960s-stub