Kan Suzuki

Kan Suzuki (Japanese铃木 寛, Kan Suzuki, born February 5, 1964 in Akashi, Hyōgo Prefecture) is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party. From 2001 to 2013 he represented for two terms in the Tokyo Prefecture Sangiin, the House of Lords.

Suzuki graduated in 1986 from his studies in law at the University of Tokyo and officer was then in the MITI. During his government career, he worked among others for the authority for raw materials and energy and the Land Authority and undertook a research stay at the University of Sydney. In 1999, he left the ministry and finally took a teaching position at the Keio University.

In the 2001 election Sangiin Suzuki joined the Democratic Party in the constituency Tokyo (then four, five mandates since 2007 ) that scored the third highest share of the vote and became a deputy. 2005 and 2006 Suzuki belonged to the shadow cabinets of Seiji Maehara and Ichirō Ozawa. In Sangiin he was also a member of the Committee on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, in the Judiciary Committee and the Research Committee on the Constitution. In 2007 he was - again with the third highest share of the vote - re-elected as an MP.

After the government takeover by the Democrats after the 2009 election was Shūgiin Suzuki Secretary of State for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in the Cabinet Hatoyama, Kan 's cabinet in 2010.

Before Sangiin - election in 2013, the Democratic Party decided at very short notice in view of lower support to nominate only one of their two previous incumbent as a candidate for re-election. The choice fell on Suzuki, but the prominent member of the DPJ Tokyo supported Naoto Kan counterpart Masako Okawara, the candidate after the withdrawal of the party nomination as independents. As a result, the party lost two seats, and the LDP won for the first time since the election in 1986 two seats in Tokyo. Suzuki achieved with almost 10% of the sixth-highest share of the vote, Okawara ended up with about four percent of the vote in ninth place.