Yukio Edano

Yukio Edano (Japanese枝 野 幸 男, Edano Yukio, born May 31, 1964 in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture) is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party, Member of the Shūgiin, the lower house, for the fifth constituency Saitama and former Chief Cabinet Secretary and Minister of Economy. Within the party he belongs to Maehara Seiji Maehara - group.

Edano studied law at Tohoku University and is registered as a lawyer since 1991. In the 1993 election he joined Shūgiin as a candidate of the New Japan Party on 5th constituency Saitama ( four seats), and was selected with the second highest share of the vote. He was then the fraction Minshu no Kaze ( " Wind of Democracy" ) and the New Party Sakigake joined in 1994 at. In 1996 he participated in the founding of the Democratic Party. Since the election of 1996 Edano candidate in single constituency Saitama 5, which he lost in 1996 (re-election by proportional representation block North Kantō ), and then won consecutive five times since 2000.

In the Democratic Party Edano was from 1997 to 1998 and from 2002 to 2004 Chairman of the Research Council as well as political Shadow Cabinet Secretary Member of the Shadow Cabinet from 2002. Shūgiin In he was also a member of the Budget Committee and the Special Committee on the Constitution.

In February 2010, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appointed him as " Minister of State at the Cabinet Office for Special Tasks " for the " renewal of the administration" (行政 刷新, Gyosei sasshin ) to relieve his cabinet to Yoshito Sengoku, who in after the resignation of Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii previous month had taken over tasks of Fujii successor Naoto Kan. Edano had in 2009 a major role in the hearings of the "Conference for the renewal of the administration" ( Gyosei sasshin kaigi ) contributed up to review the budget for potential savings. He was one of the few members of the Democratic Party, who have expressed doubts as to open early Secretary-General Ozawa Ichirō explanations for donations scandal.

Following the resignation of party leader Hatoyama and Secretary General Ozawa in June 2010 called Hatoyama's successor, Naoto Kan Edano Secretary General of the Democratic Party. During his tenure, the Democratic Party lost its upper house majority in the election in July 2010. In September 2010, he was replaced by Katsuya Okada, but remained Deputy Secretary-General. With a further replacement of cabinet and party leadership in January 2011 he was appointed Kan as the successor to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku and Minister of State for Affairs of Okinawa and the Northern Territories in his cabinet. As chief cabinet secretary, he joined as to all major events for the Cabinet and after each session of Parliament in the days after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake regularly before the public and gave location information on Fukushima nuclear disaster. He remained until the dismissal of the Cabinet Kan in September 2011 in office.