Shigefumi Matsuzawa

Shigefumi Matsuzawa (Japanese松 沢 成文, Matsuzawa Shigefumi; born April 2, 1958 in Kawasaki ) is a Japanese politician of the Minna no Tō and deputy in Sangiin, the upper house of the national parliament, for the eastern Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa. Previously, he was from 2003 to 2011 governor of Kanagawa, 1993-2003 deputy in Shūgiin.

Matsuzawa studied law at Keio University and then graduated from the Matsushita Seikei Juku (松下 政 経 塾, Eng. Matsushita Institute of Government and Management). In his senior year in 1987 he was first elected as an Independent in the prefecture of Kanagawa Parliament.

In the 1993 election Shūgiin Matsuzawa was elected as the candidate of Shinseitō MP for the constituency Kanagawa 2. He was then a member of the Shinshinto, the Kokumin no Koe and the Democratic Party. 1996 and 2000, he was - well after the electoral reform of 1994 in the 9th electoral district Kanagawa - confirmed in office. In 1999, he ran unsuccessfully against Naoto Kan for the party presidency of the Democratic Party, where he received especially the support of younger MPs.

In February 2003, Matsuzawa left the party to join the gubernatorial election of Kanagawa in March as an Independent. The election on 14 April 2003 was hotly contested, after incumbent Hiroshi Okazaki no longer took. Matsuzawa approached without the official support of the Democratic Party. Most important of the six competitors were Ryoichi Takarada ( with the support of the LDP, Kōmeitō, Conservative Party ) and Ichirō Asukata. Matsuzawa won the election with 1.04 million votes ( Takarada 676 thousand, 643 thousand Asukata ).

Matsuzawa is one of the main proponents of a common administrative and legislative structure for the Tokyo metropolitan area. Foreign policy attention was 2005, his dispute with Foreign Minister Taro Aso to the planned 2008 deployment of a nuclear -powered aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington in Yokosuka. In 2006, he relented after it was assured together with the U.S. Navy to him the creation of a disaster plan.

After Matsuzawa had initially explained in the 2011 election campaign his candidacy for the gubernatorial election in Tokyo, he withdrew his candidacy in March 2011, when incumbent Shintaro Ishihara declared his candidacy. Also for reelection in Kanagawa graduated from Matsuzawa, Yuji Kuroiwa his successor was elected. When necessary become by Ishihara's resignation early gubernatorial election in Tokyo in 2012 Matsuzawa actually ran and got 621 278 votes (less than 10 %).

In the 2013 election Sangiin Matsuzawa competed in Kanagawa, which selects Since 2013 four deputies per part choice. With 18.8 % of the vote ( 740 207 ) behind Liberal Democrat Dai Shimamura ( 28.8 %) and two candidates of the Democratic Party moved Kōmeitō and Matsuzawa into a Sangiin.