Tetsuo Saito

Tetsuo Saitō (Japanese斉 藤 鉄 夫, Saitō Tetsuo, born February 5, 1952 in Hasemi (now Onan ), County Ochi, Shimane Prefecture) is a Japanese politician of the Kōmeitō, Member of the Shūgiin, the lower house, and former Minister of the Environment.

Life

After his school days in Shimane and Hiroshima Saitō studied Applied Physics at the Tōkyō Daigaku Kōgyō. After graduating in 1976, he first worked for the construction company Shimizu Corp.. In 1985 he earned his doctorate at the Tōkyō Daigaku Kōgyō. From 1986 on, he spent three years visiting lecturer at Princeton University.

In 1993 Shūgiin - election, he was first elected to Parliament in the first constituency Hiroshima ( 4 seats ) for the Kōmeitō. After the abolition of multi-member districts and the introduction of proportional representation Saitō occurred from 1996 on, only the proportional representation block Chūgoku and was re-elected six times there. Like most members of his party he was a member since 1994 of the New Progressive Party until after its dissolution in 1997 the "New Kōmeitō " was formed.

1999 Saitō was among the Prime Ministers Mori and Koizumi Parliamentary Secretary ( seimujikan ) for science and technology. In 2004 he became chairman of the Shūgiin Committee for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Two years later he took over the chairmanship of the policy research committee ( seimu Chosakai ) the Kōmeitō.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called him in August 2008 as Minister of the Environment and single - Kōmeitō member of his cabinet. Until then, the party had occupied with Tetsuzo Fuyushiba the Department of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. He remained under Fukuda's successor, Prime Minister Taro Aso until September 2009 at the office.