Masaaki Yamazaki

Masaaki Yamazaki (left) and Urmas Paet

Masaaki Yamazaki ( Japanese 山崎 正 昭 , Yamazaki Masaaki ; born May 24, 1942 in Ōno , Fukui prefecture ) is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP, Hosoda faction ), member of the Sangiin , the upper house of the Japanese parliament , for the prefecture Fukui and from 2013 to 2016 President of the Sangiin.

Yamazaki graduated from the Politics and Economics Institute of the Nihon Daigaku Faculty of Law in 1965 and then worked for the construction company Yamazaki Kensetsu Kōgyō. In 1975 he was elected to the city parliament of Ōno, in 1979 he was elected to the prefectural parliament of Fukui for the first of four terms. From 1985 to 1987 he was Vice-President of Parliament, from 1991 to 1992 President.

Yamazaki made the change to national politics in the Sangiin election in 1992 , when he ran in Fukui (one mandate per partial election) to succeed Tasaburō Kumagai (LDP), who had died a few months earlier . With almost 60% of the vote, he prevailed against two candidates from Rengō no Kai and KPJ. In 1998, 2004 and 2010 he was confirmed in office with an absolute majority. In the government, Yamazaki was Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance from January to November 1996 ( Cabinet Hashimoto I ) , and from 2003 to 2005 ( Cabinet Koizumi II including restructuring ), Deputy Head of the Cabinet Secretariat . From 2001 to 2002 he chaired the Sangiin Rules Committee ( sangiin giin un'ei iinkai ). In the LDP he took over the leadership of the Fukui Prefectural Association from 2005 to 2009; In 2006 he also became vice-chairman of the Machimura faction. From 2007 to 2009 he was General Secretary of the LDP Sangiin faction.

In 2012, Yamazaki was elected to succeed Hidehisa Otsuji as Vice President of the Sangiin, after the LDP victory in the 2013 Sangiin election as President of the Chamber - after six years in which the Democratic Party had been the strongest force in the Sangiin and had provided the president . Like most Sangiin presidents and vice-presidents, he was non-attached from 2012 to 2016.

Yamazaki is also (since 1990 President of the Ski Association Fukui ken Fukui-Suki renmei ) and since 2005 president of the equestrian association Fukui ( Fukui-ken bajutsu renmei ).

Web links

Commons : Masaaki Yamazaki  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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