Chikara Sakaguchi

Background

He was born in Mie Prefecture and obtained an Doctor of Medicine from Mie University.

Career

Sakaguchi was Minister of Labor in the 1993-1994 coalition cabinet led by Morihiro Hosokawa. He retained this position under Junichiro Koizumi until September 2004.

Achievements

• In 1976, he ran for the House of Representatives as a member of Komeitō, and won a proportional representation seat from the Tokai bloc.

Politics

After the coalition government collapsed, he was the second-ranking officer of three other political parties, New Frontier Party (1994), Shintō Heiwa (1997), and New Komeito Party (1999). In December 2000, he was appointed Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare in the Liberal Democratic Party-Liberal-Komeito coalition cabinet of Yoshirō Mori. Sakaguchi is currently deputy director of Komeito, and is the oldest and longest-serving Komeito member of the House of Representatives.