Yoshihiko Noda

Yoshihiko Noda 野田 佳彦
Prime Minister of Japan
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 September 2011
Monarch	Akihito
Deputy	Katsuya Okada
Preceded by	Naoto Kan
Minister of Finance
In office 8 June 2010 – 2 September 2011
Prime Minister	Naoto Kan
Preceded by	Naoto Kan
Succeeded by	Jun Azumi
Senior Vice Minister of Finance
In office 16 September 2009 – 8 June 2010 Served alongside: Naoki Minezaki
Prime Minister	Yukio Hatoyama
Preceded by	Wataru Takeshita Masatoshi Ishida
Succeeded by	Motohisa Ikeda Naoki Minezaki
Personal details
Born	(1957-05-20) 20 May 1957 Funabashi, Chiba, Japan
Political party	Democratic Party (1998–present)
Other political affiliations	Japan New Party (1992–1994)
Spouse(s)	Hitomi Noda (1992-present)
Alma mater	Waseda University
Website	Official website

Yoshihiko Noda (野田 佳彦, Noda Yoshihiko, born 20 May 1957) is the current Prime Minister of Japan, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and a member of the House of Representatives (lower house) in the Diet (national legislature). He was named to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan as a result of a runoff vote against Banri Kaieda in his party, and was formally appointed by the Emperor on 2 September 2011.

Early life

Noda was born in Funabashi, Chiba, as a son of a member of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Unlike many prominent Japanese politicians, Noda has no family connections to Nagatachō. His parents were too poor to pay for a wedding reception.

Noda graduated from Chiba Prefectural Funabashi Senior High School in 1975. Then, Noda graduated from Waseda University School of Political Sciences and Economics in 1980 and was later accepted into the prestigious , an institution founded by Panasonic founder Konosuke Matsushita that grooms future civic leaders of Japan. While attending the Matsushita Institute, Noda read household gas meters as a part-time job in his native Chiba Prefecture, partially in order to get to know his future constituents better in preparation for a run for office. He was elected to the assembly of Chiba Prefecture for the first time in 1987 at the age of 29.

Diet career

Noda with Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

In 1993, he was elected to the Diet for first time representing Chiba's Lower House District #4 as a member of the now-defunct Japan New Party. He later joined the DPJ and served as its Diet affairs chief as well as head of the party's public relations office. Noda acted as senior vice finance minister when the DPJ won control of the Diet in September 2009.

In June 2010, Noda was appointed as Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who was also the previous Minister of Finance. Noda is known as a reformist and has led a DPJ intraparty group critical of ex-DPJ Secretary General Ichirō Ozawa.

Upon assuming the post of finance minister, Noda, a fiscal conservative, expressed his determination to slash Japan's deficit and rein in gross public debt. In January 2011, for the first time in six years, Noda's finance ministry intervened in the foreign exchange market and spent 2.13 trillion yen to purchase dollars in order to rein in the yen’s spiraling appreciation.

Noda is said to have close relations with the United States, and has said that "China's rapid military buildup pose a serious regional risk, and stressed the importance of the US-Japan security alliance."

After Kan's resignation in August 2011, Noda stood as a candidate in the party election to replace him. He won the runoff vote against Banri Kaieda in the leadership election, meaning he would almost certainly become the next prime minister and inherit the challenge of rebuilding from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. During the party caucus making the leadership decision, Noda made a 15-minute speech in which he summarized his political career by comparing himself to dojo loach, a kind of bottom-feeding fish. Paraphrasing a poem by Mitsuo Aida, he said, "I'll never be a goldfish in a scarlet robe, but like a loach in muddy waters. I'll work hard for the people, to move politics forward." Subsequently, he has been widely^{[citation needed]} dubbed "Prime Minister Loach" in the Japanese media, and his cabinet is called the "Loach Cabinet".

Position on war responsibility

In October 2005, Noda criticized Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for his position on Japanese class A war criminals as "war criminals". However, Noda supported Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine. On 15 August 2011—the anniversary of the year for the Surrender of Japan in World War II, he said that Japan's class A war criminals convicted by the Allies were not legally war criminals under his view. Since becoming prime minister he has stated that his position on this issue will follow the standard set by previous administrations, and that he does not wish to alter Japan's close relationship with China and Korea.

Prime Minister

In his first speech as Prime Minister on 2 September, Noda confirmed that the Japanese government will continue to phase out nuclear power, by not building new nuclear power plants nor extending the life spans of outdated ones; however, nuclear power plants which are currently sitting idle in the wake of the Fukushima disaster will be restarted in order to help Japan's immediate demands for energy.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Noda's most important initiative has been the inclusion of Japan in planning the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, which he announced on 11 November. This has proved controversial and is widely discussed in Japanese society. Otherwise, he has engaged himself in assisting Japan's economic recovery from the Tohoku earthquake.

Personal life

Noda is married to his wife Hitomi since 1992 and has 2 sons.

Noda is a fan of martial arts and professional wrestling. He has a black belt in judo.

References

• "政治家情報 〜野田 佳彦〜" (in Japanese). JANJAN. http://www.senkyo.janjan.jp/diet/profile/0000/00000098.html. Retrieved 2007-10-10. 

External links

• Official website in Japanese

House of Representatives of Japan
Preceded by Ken'ichi Ueno Hideo Usui Kazuo Eguchi Kazuo Torii Masayuki Okajima	Member of the House of Representatives for Chiba 1st district (multi-member) 1993–1996 Served alongside: Masayuki Okajima, Kazuo Torii, Hideo Usui, Kazuo Shii	Constituency abolished
Preceded by Shōichi Tanaka	Member of the House of Representatives for Chiba 4th district 2000–present	Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Takao Satō	Chief of Diet Affairs of the Democratic Party 2002–2004	Succeeded by Tatsuo Kawabata
Preceded by Yoshio Hachiro	Chief of Diet Affairs of the Democratic Party 2005–2006	Succeeded by Kōzō Watanabe
Preceded by Naoto Kan	President of the Democratic Party 2011–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Wataru Takeshita Masatoshi Ishida	Senior Vice Minister of Finance 2009–2010 Served alongside: Naoki Minezaki	Succeeded by Motohisa Ikeda Naoki Minezaki
Preceded by Naoto Kan	Minister of Finance 2010–2011	Succeeded by Jun Azumi
	Prime Minister of Japan 2011–present	Incumbent