Kenji Hirata

Kenji Hirata ( Japanese 平 田 健 二 , Hirata Kenji ; born January 4, 1944 in Kakamigahara , Gifu Prefecture ) is a former Japanese politician of the Democratic Party ( Kawabata Group ) and was President of Sangiin , the upper house of the national parliament , from 2011 to 2013 .

Hirata graduated from the Asahi Kasei Kōka Gakuin ( 旭 化成 工 科学院 ) the "Technical Academy of Asahi Kasei" in 1961 and then worked for the company. He later took on management positions in the textile union Zensen Dōmei , a member of the DSP- affiliated trade union federation Dōmei (since 1989 part of Rengō ): From 1973 he headed the prefecture association Ibaraki, from 1984 the prefecture association Mie and 1989 the prefecture association Gifu. From 1989 he took over management positions at Rengō Gifu.

In the Sangiin election in 1995 , which took place during the grand coalition between the SPJ and LDP , Hirata ran for the New Progress Party (NFP) in Gifu Prefecture, which elected two members of the council for the first time. He was able to surpass the socialist incumbent Shōya Iwasaki and was elected with the second highest percentage of votes behind ex-labor minister Akira Ōno (LDP). In 2001 and 2007 , he was also confirmed in office with the second highest percentage of votes behind conservative candidates.

After the dissolution of the NFP, Hirata became a member of the Shinto Yūai ("New Brotherhood Party") of Kansei Nakano and thus in 1998 the Democratic Party. There he was deputy general secretary in 2001 and from 2003 chairman of the Gifu Prefectural Association. After taking power in 2009, Hirata became Chairman of the Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, and in 2010 General Secretary of the Sangiin Democratic Group.

In 2011, Hirata was elected to succeed the late Sangiin President Takeo Nishioka . Before the Sangiin election in 2013 , he announced his withdrawal from politics in March 2013 and after three terms as a member of parliament did not run for re-election.

Web links

• Official Website (Japanese)
• Sangiin: Member Profile (Japanese, English )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 平 田 参 院 議長 政界 引退 を 正式 表明 . (No longer available online.) In: Nikkan Sports . March 10, 2013, archived from the original on May 16, 2013 ; Retrieved August 21, 2013 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.