Nobutaka Machimura

Nobutaka Machimura at the Foreign ministry in Tokyo in a meeting with the US Secretary Rice.

Nobutaka Machimura and Condoleezza Rice.

Nobutaka Machimura (町村 信孝, Machimura Nobutaka^?, born October 17, 1944) is a Japanese politician. He is a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.^[1] He was Chief Cabinet Secretary in the government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda from 2007 to 2008.

Career

He attended the University of Tokyo and Wesleyan University in the United States. He was elected to his first term in the House of Representatives in the December 1983 election, and he has been re-elected in each election since. He became Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture on September 11, 1997, as part of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's second cabinet, and became State Secretary for Foreign Affairs on July 31, 1998, in Keizō Obuchi's first cabinet. In March 2000, he became Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, serving under Obuchi and his successor, Yoshirō Mori. On December 5, 2000, he became Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture and Director-General of the Science and Technology Agency, before becoming Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on January 6, 2001.^[1]

He was the Minister for Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi from September 27, 2004^[1] to October 31, 2005. His goals included signing a treaty with Russia resolving a border dispute, and investigating the whereabouts of Japanese hostages who were kidnapped by North Korean agents during the 1970s and 1980s. He was replaced by Tarō Asō in the cabinet reshuffle that followed the September 11, 2005 election.

He was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs again by Prime Minister Shinzō Abe on August 27, 2007.^[2] In 2006, Machimura became chairman of the Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai, the LDP's largest faction.^[3] As such, on September 14, 2007 he backed Yasuo Fukuda's bid to become Abe's successor, following Abe's resignation on September 12.^[4] Since 2007, Machimura co-chairs his faction alongside Hidenao Nakagawa and Shūzen Tanigawa.^[5]

In Fukuda's government, sworn in on September 26, 2007, Machimura became Chief Cabinet Secretary and State Minister in charge of Abduction Issues.^[6] He was replaced by Takeo Kawamura in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, which was appointed on 24 September 2008.^[7]

He is the vice president of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians' Union.

Personal life

On December 18, 2007, Machimura said at an official press conference that he believes in the existence of UFOs.^[8][9] The Shukan Bunshun weekly quoted him as saying, “No matter what it looks like, the United States is a very conservative country.”

“Obama is black and Hillary is a woman. I guess it would be difficult for them to win,”the government’s chief spokesman, was quoted as saying in a gathering with reporters in February, 2008. “It will likely be McCain who will win the race in the end.”

However, his rebuttal to the magazine states that his best friend was African-American when he studied at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he was quoted as saying “It’s not in my mindset to discriminate against black people or women, “In fact, Secretary of State (Condoleezza) Rice was the person I trusted the most when I was foreign minister.”

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Profile of Minister for Foreign Affairs Nobutaka Machimura", Foreign Ministry website.
2. ^ Takashi Hirokawa and Stuart Biggs, "Abe Replaces Finance Minister; Aso to Rebuild LDP", Bloomberg.com, August 27, 2007.
3. ^ "Machimura takes top LDP faction". The Japan Times. 2006-10-20. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061020a7.html. Retrieved 2009-02-02. 
4. ^ Keiichi Yamamura and Sachiko Sakamaki, "Fukuda Challenges Aso in Race to Be Prime Minister", Bloomberg.com, September 14, 2007.
5. ^ (Japanese) Official faction website: List of chairmen
6. ^ "Fukuda Cabinet launched / Changes minimized to reduce impact on Diet business", The Yomiuri Shimbun, September 26, 2007.
7. ^ "Aso elected premier / Announces Cabinet lineup himself; poll likely on Nov. 2", The Yomiuri Shimbun, 25 September 2008.
8. ^ (Dutch) Japanse kabinetssecretaris gelooft in UFO's, NU.nl, December 19, 2007
9. ^ "UFOs exist, says Japan official". BBC News. December 18, 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7150156.stm. Retrieved May 20, 2010. 

House of Representatives of Japan
Preceded by Multi-member constituency	Representative for Hokkaidō 1st district (multi-member) 1983 – 1996	District eliminated
New constituency	Representative for Hokkaidō 5th district 1996 – 2009	Succeeded by Chiyomi Kobayashi
Preceded by N/A	Representative for the Hokkaidō PR block 2009 – 2010	Succeeded by N/A
Vacant Title last held by Chiyomi Kobayashi	Representative for Hokkaidō 5th district 2010 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Kaoru Yosano	Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan 2007 – 2008	Succeeded by Takeo Kawamura
Preceded by Kaoru Yosano	Minister of State for the Abduction Issue 2007 – 2008	Succeeded by Kyoko Nakayama
Preceded by Tarō Asō	Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan 2007	Succeeded by Masahiko Kōmura
Preceded by Yoriko Kawaguchi	Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan 2004 – 2005	Succeeded by Tarō Asō
New creation	Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan 2001	Succeeded by Atsuko Toyama
Preceded by Takashi Kosugi Tadamori Oshima	Minister of Education 1997 – 1998 2000 – 2001	Succeeded by Akito Arima Office abolished

Persondata
Name	Machimura, Nobutaka
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1944
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death