Heita Kawakatsu

Heita Kawakatsu (Japanese川 胜 平 太, Kawakatsu Heita, born August 16, 1948) is a Japanese scientist, politician and elected Governor of Shizuoka Prefecture.

Kawakatsu, graduated from Waseda University with a Ph.D from the University of Oxford, since 1990 professor was at the Faculty of Economics, Waseda University. From 1998 he taught at the Kokusai Nihon Bunka Kenkyu Interuniversity Center (国際 日本 文化 研究 センター) in Kyoto. Since the 1990s, he was a member of various expert committees of the government, 2006 was Kawakatsu member of Kyoiku Saisei kaigi (教育 再生 会议, " Conference on the Revitalization of Education" ), a body that advised the Cabinet Abe to reform the education system. In 2007 he was rector of the Shizuoka Daigaku Bunka Geijutsu (静冈 文化 芸 术 大学, " University of Culture and Arts Shizuoka " ), which he left in 2009 to run in the election for governor of Shizuoka. In his academic career, he has published several books on economic and cultural history.

In the gubernatorial election on 5 July 2009 Kawakatsu could, which was supported by three opposition parties, Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party and People's New Party, the former Upper House MPs Yukiko Sakamoto hit scarce, which was supported by the government parties Liberal Democratic Party and Kōmeitō. He had promised during the election campaign for the reduction of 2.3 trillion yen ( 17 billion euros, as of July 2009) to engage debt of the prefecture and improving the education system.

Kawakatsu succeeds Yoshinobu Ishikawa, who resigned in June 2009 and did not stand for re-election.

Writings

AJH Latham and Heita Kawakatsu (eds.): Asia Pacific Dynamism 1550-2000. Routledge, London / New York 2000