is a Japanese politician and a current 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 ...

for the Kanagawa at-large district in the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paral ...

. A native of

Kawasaki, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the eighth most populated city in Japan (includin ...

and graduate of

Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowment ...

with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

, he has previously served in the assembly of Kanagawa Prefecture for two terms from 1987 to 1993, in 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 for three terms from 1993 to 2003 and as the

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 ...

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. Kanag ...

from 2003 until 2011. He was elected to the House of Councillors in 2013 as a member of

Your Party is a Japanese parliamentary caucus consisting of Yoshimi Watanabe and Takashi Tachibana, later Satoshi Hamada after Tachibana forfeited his seat, in the House of Councillors. It was also a political party led by Watanabe from 2009 until its ...

. Upon the dissolution of Your Party in November 2014 he joined the

Party for Future Generations The , officially the , was a Japanese political party. It was formed as the on 1 August 2014 by a group of Diet members led by Shintarō Ishihara. The party adopted its final name in December 2015, and ended up dissolving in November 2018. Histo ...

. He left the party in August 2015 and sat as an independent until becoming the leader of

Kibō no Tō was a conservative political party in Japan founded by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. The party was founded just before the call of the 2017 general election. The party's ideology was mainly Japanese conservatism and nationalism. Kibō no Tō ...

in May 2018. He resigned as leader on May 28, 2019, and was succeeded by

Nariaki Nakayama is a Japanese politician who has served as leader of Kibō no Tō from 2019 to 2021. He served as Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in the Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi and later as Minister of Land, Infrastructure, ...

. He subsequently left the party and joined

Nippon Ishin no Kai The is a conservative and right-wing populist political party in Japan. Formed as ''Initiatives from Osaka'' in October 2015 from a split in the old Japan Innovation Party, the party became the third-biggest opposition party in the National ...

. During his time as a graduate student at the Matsushita School of Government, Matsuzawa lived in

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...

for a year and worked in the office of then-U.S. Congresswoman Beverly Byron, studying the 1984 U.S. presidential election, which became the subject of a book he wrote and published in Japan in 1985. He was affiliated with the openly nationalist organisation

Nippon Kaigi The Right side up ...

References

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* 1958 births Living people Governors of Kanagawa Prefecture Keio University alumni Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) Members of the Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly Your Party politicians People from Kawasaki, Kanagawa United States congressional aides Tokyo gubernatorial candidates Nippon Ishin no Kai politicians 21st-century Japanese politicians {{Japan-politician-1950s-stub Members of Nippon Kaigi