YÅ«ji Tsushima

Yuji Tsushima (Japanese津 岛 雄 二Yuji Tsushima, born January 24, 1930 in Suginami, Tōkyō as上 野 雄 二Yuji Ueno ) is a former Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP) and Minister of Health. In his party he led from 2005 until his retirement from politics in 2009, the second largest faction in the Tsushima faction.

Tsushima graduated in law from the University of Tokyo in 1953. After that, he became a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance. In 1955 he visited as an exchange student through the Fulbright program, the Syracuse University. Between 1963 and 1967 he worked as a Secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Paris. There he married Sonoko Tsushima, the eldest daughter of the writer Dazai Osamu, whose family name he took.

1974 Tsushima left the Treasury Department and in 1976 was elected in the first electoral district of Aomori Prefecture to the House and since then eleven times re-elected. 1990 and 2000 he was health minister in the cabinets Kaifu and Mori for short periods. After he had listened to parliament today Tanigaki faction since his election, he left in the 1990s for some time, the LDP and eventually joined the opposition to Shinshinto. When this was dissolved, he returned to the LDP and joined the Obuchi faction, whose chairman in 2005.

In July 2009, he announced his retirement from Parliament general election, 2009. His constituency won in the second round at the Shūgiin - election in 2012, his son and former Member Secretary Jun.