Nobuto Hosaka
保坂 展人
Official portrait published by the Cabinet Office
10th Mayor of Setagaya
Assumed office
April 27, 2011
Preceded byNoriyuki Kumamoto
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
October 20, 1996 – October 10, 2003
In office
September 12, 2005 – July 21, 2009
Personal details
Born (1955-11-26) November 26, 1955 (age 68)[1]
Sendai, Japan
Political partyIndependent (formerly of Social Democratic Party)
Websitehosaka.gr.jp

Nobuto Hosaka (保坂 展人, Hosaka Nobuto) (born November 26, 1955) is a Japanese politician and the current mayor of Setagaya in Tokyo. In addition, he was a member of the House of Representatives for the Social Democratic Party until July 21, 2009.

Hosaka campaigned and won the mayor's job on an anti-nuclear platform in April 2011, just over a month after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. According to The Wall Street Journal, Hosaka "is determined to turn this city ward of 840,000 people, the largest in Tokyo, into the front-runner of a movement that will put an end to Japan's reliance on atomic power and accelerate the use of renewable energy".[2][3]

Hosaka opposes the death penalty,[4] and held the position of secretary general of the Parliamentary League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.[5] He is also highly critical of continued Japanese moral panic against the Otaku subculture in the nation, with one notable case of criticism displayed against public and media related assumptions and gossip surrounding the incidents of November 17, 2004, when Kaoru Kobayashi murdered a 7-year-old girl.[6]

In 2006 and 2007, Hosaka joined the gay parade in Tokyo. Mizuho Fukushima, then-leader of the Social Democratic Party, also joined the event with him in 2007.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Profile｜プロフィール｜--元気印。--- 世田谷区長 保坂のぶとWEB". Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  2. ^ George Nishiyama (February 6, 2012). "Anti-Nuclear Tokyo Mayor Challenges Big Utilities". The Wall Street Journal.
  3. ^ "Anti-nuclear plant candidate Hosaka wins Setagaya Ward mayoral race". Mainichi Shimbun. April 25, 2011. Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
  4. ^ "Death row: limbo of not knowing when". The Japan Times. February 27, 2007. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
  5. ^ "Japan's way of judicial killing". The Japan Times. April 8, 2007. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
  6. ^ "Otaku harassed as sex-crime fears mount". The Japan Times. February 6, 2005. Archived from the original on December 16, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2008.
  7. ^ 東京プライドパレード、福島さんと歩きました - 保坂展人のどこどこ日記 His official blog(in Japanese)


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