Mr. Harada Yoshiaki - Senior Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan)

Date of Birth

• October 1, 1944

Place of Birth

• Fukuoka Prefecture

Previous career 

April, 1960         

• Entered the Shuyukan Municipal High School in Fukuoka

June, 1963         

• Graduated from Oklahoma High School in the United States of America  

March, 1964      

• Graduated from Koyamadai Municipal High School in Tokyo

March, 1968      

• Graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo

April, 1968       

• Joined Nippon Steel Corporation, worked at its Yawata Works  (resigned in August, 1968)            

April, 1970          

• Joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry 

September, 1976    

• Graduated from Tufts University graduate school in Massachusetts

April, 1983         

• Director, General Affairs Division, Kanto International Trade and Industry Office

November, 1984    

• Councilor, Small Enterprise Division, Small and Medium Enterprise Agency

December, 1985    

• Secretary to the Minister of International Trade and Industry   (resigned in April, 1986)  
                   

Political career

February, 1990     

• Elected as a member of the House of Representatives (H.R.) for the first time  (Returned 3 times)

March, 1990        

• Member, Diet Affairs Committee, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) 
  (until September, 1993)

March, 1990        

• Chairman, National Campaign Headquarters, LDP (until November, 1991)

February, 1991     

• Director, Committee on Communication, H.R. (until February, 1993)

November, 1991    

• Chairman, Committee on Energy Problems, LDP (until May, 1993)

February, 1993     

• Director, Committee on Education, H.R. (until June, 1993)

November, 1996    

• Deputy Director, Construction Division, LDP (until September, 1997)

November, 1996     

• Deputy Director, Agriculture and Forestry Division, LDP  (until September, 1997 )

November, 1996     

• Director, Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, H.R.  (until September, 1997)

September, 1997     

• Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Health and Welfare (until July, 1998) 

August, 1998        

• Director, Committee on Construction, H.R. (until June, 2000)

October, 1999       

• Director, Foreign Affairs Division, LDP (until July, 2000)

October, 2001        

• Deputy Chairman, General Council, LDP (until September 2002) 

October, 2002     

• Director, Steering Committee on Representatives, H.R. (until September 2003)

October, 2002        

• Deputy Chairman, Diet Affairs Committee, LDP (until September, 2003)

October, 2002        

• Deputy Chairman, Research Commission on Foreign Affairs, LDP  (until September 2003) 

October, 2002        

• Chief Secretary, Research Commission to Promote the Provision of Social
  Capital through Private Finance Initiatives(PFI), LDP (until September 2003)

October, 2002    

• Deputy Chairman, Research Commission on the Judiciary System, LDP 
   (until September 2003)

April, 2003     

• Member, Committee on Land, Infrastructure and Transport, H.R  (until September 2003).

May, 2003      

• Director, Political Ethics Hearing Committee, H.R.  (until September 2003)

September, 2003     

• Senior Vice Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
  

Profile

HARADA Yoshiaki was born in a town in Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu, which was famous for its coal mines. Repeatedly witnessing the misery and grief caused by cave accidents, he felt in his young mind  that he wanted to make society richer and Japan better when he grew up and sensed a future in politics.  

After college graduation, he was first employed at the Nippon Steel Corporation’s Yawata Works. Thereafter, Harada joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry ( the present Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ), where he advanced industrial policies from the administrative position that the nation’s development materializes from its economic base. 

When the late Watanabe Michio-nicknamed Micchii--was Minister of International Trade and Industry, he scouted Harada and suggested that he enter politics. Thereupon Harada resigned from his 15-year career as a bureaucrat. With the conviction that “Japan’s future depends on earnestly educating children and cultivating their minds,” Harada shows boundless zeal and enthusiasm for administration of education, culture, sports, science and technology.

Mottos/Creed

• Head always for truth, Dignity with tenderness and no ferociousness

Interests

• Judo (sixth rank), go (third rank), baseball, golf, tennis, karaoke

Family

• Wife (Tomoko), three daughters