Kazuhiro Haraguchi
原口 一博
Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications
In office
16 September 2009 – 17 September 2010
Prime MinisterYukio Hatoyama
Naoto Kan
Preceded byTsutomu Sato
Succeeded byYoshihiro Katayama
Member of the House of Representatives
Assumed office
21 October 1996
ConstituencySaga-1st
Personal details
Born (1959-07-02) 2 July 1959
Saga, Japan
Political partyCDP
Other political
affiliations		DP (2016–2018, merger)
DPJ (1998–2016, merger)
NFP (1996–1998)
Independent (1993–1996)
LDP (before 1993)
Alma materUniversity of Tokyo

Kazuhiro Haraguchi (原口 一博, Haraguchi Kazuhiro, born 2 July 1959) is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party for the People and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature).

Career

A native of Saga, Saga and graduate of the University of Tokyo, he was elected to the assembly of Saga Prefecture (District #1) for the first time in 1987 as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, serving there for two times. In 1996 he was elected to the House of Representatives from Saga's 1st district for the first time as a member of the New Frontier Party (Shinshinto) after running unsuccessfully in 1993 as an independent. He switched to the DPJ in 1998. He was Minister of Internal Affairs from 2009 to 2010, in Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan's Cabinets.

Haraguchi studied Psychology at the University of Tokyo and attended the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. He often appears on television in which he discusses tax, pension, and decentralization issues.[1]

In the 2012 general election Haraguchi lost his single-seat electorate but retained a seat in the diet through the proportional representation system.[2] He regained his seat in the 2014 election.

Positions

Haraguchi is affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi,[3] and a member of the association of parliamentarians promoting visits to the controversial Yasukuni shrine"[4]

Haraguchi gave the following answers to the questionnaire submitted by Mainichi to parliamentarians in 2012:[5]

  • in favor of the revision of the Constitution
  • in favor of right of collective self-defense (revision of Article 9)
  • in favor of reform of the National assembly (unicameral instead of bicameral)
  • in favor of zero nuclear power by 2030s
  • in favor of the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma (Okinawa)
  • in favor of the reform of the Imperial Household that would allow women to retain their Imperial status even after marriage
  • against participation of Japan to the Trans-Pacific Partnership
  • against a nuclear-armed Japan

Controversial remarks about Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Haraguchi mentioned support for Ukraine in a YouTube video and said, "Japan is behind the neo-Nazi regime." The Ukrainian Embassy in Japan protested Haraguchi's remarks on X. Haraguchi explained, "The intention was that Russia was telling us that we were behind the neo-Nazi regime," and the Constitutional Democratic Party to which Haraguchi belongs warned him verbally.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Japan Times, "Cabinet Profiles: Kan's lineup", June 9, 2010, p. 4.
  2. ↑ Japan Times Nothing left for the election-gutted DPJ to do but rebuild December 18, 2012
  3. ↑ Nippon Kaigi website – among the 86 parliamentarians attending a March 7, 2006 meeting : nipponkaigi.org/activity/archives/997
  4. ↑ みんなで靖国神社に参拝する国会議員の会" - senkyomae.com
  5. ↑ Mainichi 2012: senkyo.mainichi.jp/46shu/kaihyo_area_meikan.html?mid=A41001001001
  6. ↑ https://www.asahi.com/sp/articles/ASR9G5VTDR9GUTFK00S.html
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