is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He was the

Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. The minister is nominated by the Prime Minister of Japan and is appointed by the Emperor of Japan. Minister Katsunobu Ka ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(2006–2007), and was 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 ...

from 1980 to 2009. His constituency was

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

3rd District. In January 2007, he drew criticism for describing women as "birth-giving machines" and "baby making devices" in a speech on the falling

birthrate The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...

of Japan. He said later "it was extremely sound to have more than two children". He believes in

Tenrikyo is a Japanese new religion which is neither strictly monotheistic nor pantheistic, originating from the teachings of a 19th-century woman named Nakayama Miki, known to her followers as "Oyasama". Followers of Tenrikyo believe that God of Origin, ...

Career

He is from the city of

Fukuroi 270px, Shizuoka Stadium is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 88,395 in 34,842 households, and a population density of 820 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Fukuroi is a me ...

. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at 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 ...

in 1961. In 1980 he was elected to the

for the first time, and has been elected eight times since. He was the

Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

from July 1994 until August 1995, and the Chairman of the Committee on Health and Welfare from March 1998 to July 1998. In July 1998 he was appointed to be the Minister of State for the

National Land Agency National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Keizō Obuchi was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1998 to 2000. Obuchi was elected to the House of Representatives in Gunma Prefecture in 1963, becoming the youngest legislator in Japanese history, and was re-elected to his ...

, and became the Minister of State for Financial Reconstruction in October of that year. He was the Minister of State and Chairman of the

Financial Reconstruction Commission Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

from December 1998 to October 1999. He then reprised that role from December 2000 to January 2001. He was the Minister of State for Financial Services from January 2001 to September 2002, when he stepped down due to a disagreement with the minister in charge of

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

and

fiscal policy In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection (taxes or tax cuts) and expenditure to influence a country's economy. The use of government revenue expenditures to influence macroeconomic variables ...

Heizō Takenaka is a Japanese economist, retired politician, and political activist last serving as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications and Minister of State for Privatization of the Postal Services in the cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizum ...

. He was the Chairman of the Research Commission on the Tax System for the LDP from November 2005 to September 2006. He became the

in September 2006.
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare
' (27 January 2007, 22:48 GMT) He was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, belonging specifically to the

Kōchikai is a leading faction within Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), founded by bureaucrat-turned-politician Ikeda Hayato in 1957. Currently headed by Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, it has produced five prime ministers (Ikeda, Masayoshi Ō ...

(''Koga'' faction). In August 2009, Yanagisawa ran for reelection to represent Shizuoka's 3rd district House of Representatives, but was defeated by

Nobuhiro Koyama Nobuhiro (written: 信広, 信宏, 信尋, 信淵, 信弘, 信敬, 修宏, 修弘, 伸宏, 伸博, 伸洋, 敦弘, 敦彦, 暢彦, 順大, 順裕, 展裕, 伸啓, 宣浩, or 亘弘) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name i ...

. Yanagisawa thereafter retired from politics and accepted a post as the president of

Josai International University , JIU, is a private university established in 1992, with two campuses, one in Tōgane, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and one in Kioi-chō, Chiyoda-ku is a special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English.

References

, - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Yanagisawa, Hakuo 1935 births Living people Politicians from Shizuoka Prefecture University of Tokyo alumni Tenrikyo Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Ministers of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians 21st-century Japanese politicians