Fukushiro Nukaga

Fukushiro Nukaga

Fukushiro Nukaga (額賀 福志郎, Nukaga Fukushirō^?, born January 11, 1944) is a Japanese politician and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1983 and represents Ibaraki's 2nd district.^[1] He was Minister of Finance from 2007^[2] to 2008.

Nukaga was born in Asō, Ibaraki, now part of Namegata, Ibaraki. He graduated from Waseda University's Faculty of Political Science and Economics.^[1]

He was named Minister of State and head of the Japan Defense Agency on July 30, 1998, under Prime Minister Keizō Obuchi,^[3] serving in that position until November 1998, when he resigned due to a scandal.^[4] He was named Minister of State in charge of economic and fiscal policy, as well as IT policy, on December 5, 2000, as part of Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori's second cabinet,^[5] but he resigned on January 23, 2001, following criticism regarding 15 million yen he had received from the mutual aid foundation KSD. He said that his secretary had received the money and that it had been returned, but apologized and said that he took "final responsibility as a supervisor". Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said that the government believed Nukaga's explanation.^[4] Nukaga returned to the position of Minister of State and head of the Japan Defense Agency on October 31, 2005, under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi,^[6][7] and remained in that position until September 2006.

He was appointed Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in a cabinet reshuffle on August 27, 2007.^[2] Following Abe's resignation on September 12, Nukaga initially said that he would run for the position of LDP president (and thus Prime Minister) on September 13, but on September 14, after meeting with Yasuo Fukuda, Nukaga announced that he would back Fukuda for the leadership.^[8] Following Fukuda's victory in the leadership election, Nukuga remained as Finance Minister in Fukuda's Cabinet, sworn in on September 26, 2007.^[9] He was replaced in that post by Bunmei Ibuki on August 1, 2008.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} CV at government website.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Abe Replaces Finance Minister; Aso to Rebuild LDP", Bloomberg.com, August 27, 2007.
3. ^ "OBUCHI NAMES CABINET: Government to Focus on Economic Issues", web-japan.org, July 31, 1998.
4. ^ ^{a b} "2ND LD: Nukaga resigns over KSD scandal, Aso takes over", Kyodo News International (Japan Policy & Politics), January 29, 2001.
5. ^ "Mori Launches Second Cabinet: Two Ex-Prime Ministers Named to New Team", web-japan.org, December 11, 2000.
6. ^ Norimitsu Onishi, "Conservatives lead Japan's cabinet", International Herald Tribune, October 31, 2005.
7. ^ List of members of the cabinet of October 31, 2005, kantei.go.jp.
8. ^ "Japan's finance chief not to run for ruling party president", Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), September 14, 2007.
9. ^ "Fukuda Cabinet launched / Changes minimized to reduce impact on Diet business", The Yomiuri Shimbun, September 26, 2007.

House of Representatives of Japan
Preceded by Multi-member constituency	Representative for Ibaraki 1st District 1983 – 1996	Succeeded by Office abolished
Preceded by Office created	Representative for Ibaraki 2nd District 1996 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Koji Omi	Minister of Finance of Japan 2007 – 2008	Succeeded by Bunmei Ibuki

Persondata
Name	Nukaga, Fukushiro
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1944
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death