Ichita Yamamoto

is a neoconservative member of the House of Councillors in Japan. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he is also a singer, a songwriter and a composer because he used to be a member of a band of rock'n roll.

Yamamoto who worked for an international organisation was elected after the death of his father Tomio Yamamoto who was a member of the House of Councillors. He belongs to some committees including the Foreign and Defense Policy Committee.

Yamamoto hails from the skiing and hot spring resort town of Kusatsu in Gunma Prefecture. His family owned the Hotel White Town in Kusatsu. (This hotel went bankrupt in 1989.) Tomio Yamamoto (his father) was a coach of the Japanese Olympic ski team. Yamamoto obtained his bachelors degree in law from Chuo University. After that, he studied English at Simul Academy and Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin. Yamamoto then entered the Master of Science in Foreign Service program at Georgetown University, graduating in 1985. Upon returning to Japan, he worked for Asahi Newspaper as a reporter for a short period of time, at the Fukushima bureau. After Asahi, Yamamoto worked for the Japanese government development aid organization JICA for a number of years, later transferring to the United Nations in New York. Upon the death of his father, he ran for the same seat and won in 1995. He was re-elected in 2001 and 2007. Yamamoto frequently appears on political talk shows in Japan. Once a member of Iraq Special Committee at the House of Councillors, he showed his ignorance on this country in the Middle-East by painting Syria when he was asked to point out Iraq at a TV quiz show in 2006 together with Akira Amari, a member of the lower house.

External links

* [http://www.ichita.com/ Offical site] (in Japanese)