is a Japanese politician who has been the governor of

Gunma Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 Square kilometre, km2 (2,456 Square mile, sq mi). Gunma P ...

since July 2019. He was a

neoconservative Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and count ...

member 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, or ...

in Japan. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he served as the Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs from 2012 to 2019 on the

second Abe cabinet The Second Abe Cabinet governed Japan under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe from December 2012 to December 2014. Following the return to power of the LDP in the 2012 general election, Abe, as party president, was elected Prime Minis ...

Overview

Katayama Suga Yamamoto etc in Shibuya DSCN2571 20060919

Yamamoto who worked for an international organisation was elected after the death of his father Tomio Yamamoto who was a member of the House of Councillors. Ichita Yamamoto's great-grandfather founded the Kusatsu ryokan "Yamadaya". Ichita's grandfather was mayor of Kusatsu. Ichita's father, Tomio Yamamoto, started in the Kusatsu town council (1955), rose to the Gunma Prefectural Assembly (1966), and finally the House of Councillors (1977), where he remained until his death in 1995 (age 66) of liver failure. Ichita Yamamoto belongs to some committees including the Foreign and Defense Policy Committee. Ichita Yamamoto hails from the skiing and hot spring resort town of Kusatsu in

Gunma is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima P ...

Prefecture. His family owned the Hotel White Town in Kusatsu. (This hotel went bankrupt in 1989.) Tomio Yamamoto (his father) was a coach of the Japanese Olympic ski team. Yamamoto obtained his

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from

Chuo University , commonly referred to as or , is a private flagship research university in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1885 as Igirisu Hōritsu Gakkō (the English Law School), Chuo is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions in the country. The univer ...

. After that, he studied English at Simul Academy and Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin. Yamamoto then entered the

Master of Science in Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It is considered to be one of the world's leading international affairs schools, granting degrees at bot ...

program at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, graduating in 1986. Upon returning to Japan, he worked for Asahi Newspaper as a reporter for a short period of time, at the Fukushima bureau. After Asahi, Yamamoto worked for the Japanese government development aid organization

JICA The is a governmental agency that delivers the bulk of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the government of Japan. It is chartered with assisting economic and social growth in developing countries, and the promotion of international co ...

for a number of years, later transferring to the United Nations in New York. Upon the death of his father, he ran for the same seat and won in 1995. He was re-elected in 2001, 2007 and 2013. Yamamoto frequently appears on political talk shows in Japan. On 26 December 2012, Yamamoto was named Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs in the second Cabinet of

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 i ...

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...

Music

* , 1998 * , 2003, Featured on episode 7 of ''

Adam and Joe Go Tokyo ''Adam and Joe Go Tokyo'' was a series of eight episodes created for BBC Three (also airing in full on BBC One at a later timeslot as promotion for the new channel). It starred Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish of '' The Adam and Joe Show'' and air ...

''.

References

External links

Official site
(in Japanese)
YouTube channel
Living people 1958 births People from Gunma Prefecture Governors of Gunma Prefecture Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Chuo University alumni {{Japan-politician-1950s-stub