Tatsuo Kawabata

Tatsuo Kawabata (Japanese川端 达夫, Tatsuo Kawabata, born January 24, 1945 in the district Gamou (now Omihachiman ), Shiga Prefecture) is a Japanese politician. He was until 2012 a deputy in Shūgiin, the lower house, the Democratic Party (DPJ ) and 2009-2010 Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, first in the Cabinet Yukio Hatoyama, then in Kan Cabinet, and from 2011 to 2012 Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications in the Cabinet Noda.

In the DPJ he is named after its own faction, the Kawabata group ( officially :民 社 协会, Minsha Kyōkai, " Democratic- Socialist society" ) from former members of the Democratic Socialist Party.

Kawabata, a graduate of Kyoto University, was first elected in Shūgiin - election in 1986 for the Democratic- Socialist Party in the constituency Shiga into parliament and then eight times re-elected - since 1996 in single constituency Shiga 1st 1994, he joined as the other members of his party of Shinshinto, which he temporarily left again in 1995. After the dissolution of Shinshinto the end of 1997 he was first at the " New Party Fraternity" ( Shinto YUAI ) before he joined the Democratic Party in 1998.

From 1999 to 2000, and again in 2004 Kawabata was chairman of the Committee for Parliamentary Affairs ( kokkai Taisaku iinkai ) of the DPJ. In 2004 he became Secretary General Katsuya Okada, under the party chairman. After Shūgiin - election in 2005, when he lost his constituency and was re-elected on the proportional representation block Kinki, he resigned as Okada. Since 2006 he has been one of the deputy chairman of the party.

In September 2009, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appointed him as Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in his cabinet. The responsibility for science and technology policy, he took over on January 7, 2010 by Naoto Kan. Under Prime Minister Naoto Kan, he retained the position until the cabinet reshuffle in September 2010, when he was replaced by Yoshiaki Takaki ( Kawabata group). In 2010 he took over the chairmanship of the Rules Committee of the Shūgiin ( Giin - un'ei - iinkai ).

After the detachment Kans by Yoshihiko Noda he was 2 September 2011 Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications in the Cabinet, but this lost in the third Cabinet reshuffle on 1 October 2012. During the 2012 election he was defeated Shūgiin in the constituency Shiga 1 to approximately 6,000 votes to the Liberal Democrats Toshitaka Ooka and also missed a proportional representation mandate scarce, but is the first potential substitutes of the Democrats in the Kinki block.