Kazuhiro Haraguchi

Kazuhiro Haraguchi is a Japanese politician of the Tax Cuts Japan and Yukoku Alliance, and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet.

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Political career

A native of Saga, Saga and graduate of the University of Tokyo, he was elected to the assembly of Saga Prefecture for the first time in 1987 as a member of the Liberal [Democratic Party (Japan)|Liberal Democratic Party], serving there for two times. In 1996 he was elected to the House of Representatives from Saga's 1st district for the first time as a member of the New Frontier Party after running unsuccessfully in 1993 as an independent. He switched to the DPJ in 1998. He was Minister of Internal Affairs from 2009 to 2010, in Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan's Cabinets.
Haraguchi studied Psychology at the University of Tokyo and attended the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. He often appears on television in which he discusses tax, pension, and decentralization issues.
In the 2012 general election Haraguchi lost his single-seat electorate but retained a seat in the diet through the proportional representation system. He regained his seat in the 2014 election.
Following Constitutional Democratic Party leader Yoshihiko Noda’s announcement that the CDP and Komeito would merge to form the Centrist Reform Alliance to contest a possible general election, Haraguchi criticized Noda on X. Haraguchi announced that he would not join the new party, but instead would turn his existing organization, the Yukoku Alliance, into a political party in the House of Representatives. By technicality, the Yukoku Alliance cannot officially become a political party in Japan due to the criteria that any organization must have at least 5 members in the National Diet.

Positions

Haraguchi gave the following answers to the questionnaire submitted by the Mainichi Shimbun to parliamentarians in 2012:

in favor of the revision of the Constitution
in favor of right of collective self-defense
in favor of reform of the National assembly
in favor of zero nuclear power by 2030s
in favor of the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma
in favor of the reform of the Imperial Household that would allow women to retain their Imperial status even after marriage
against participation of Japan to the Trans-Pacific Partnership
against a nuclear-armed Japan

Haraguchi is a member of the association of parliamentarians promoting visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

Controversial remarks about Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Haraguchi mentioned support for Ukraine in a YouTube video and said, "Japan is behind the neo-Nazi regime." The Ukrainian Embassy in Japan protested Haraguchi's remarks on X. Haraguchi explained, "The intention was that Russia was telling us that we were behind the neo-Nazi regime," and the Constitutional Democratic Party to which Haraguchi belongs warned him verbally.

Vaccine remarks lawsuit

In December 2024, the pharmaceutical company Meiji Seika Pharma filed a lawsuit against Haraguchi after he described the company's new coronavirus vaccine as being like a "biological weapon" in a post on X.