Date of birth: Feb. 5, 1952

Party: New Komeito

Electoral district: Lower House; Chugoku proportional representation (fifth term)

Saito, an applied physics major who graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1976, began his career at major construction firm Shimizu Corp., where he had worked on research on building hotels in space.

He earned a doctorate from the university in 1985 and was a visiting researcher at Princeton University in the U.S. for three years starting in 1986.

A native of Shimane Prefecture, Saito was first elected to the Lower House in 1993. He is known for his ties with NASA as well as for his top-level knowledge of lunar bases and clean energy technology.

Thanks to his expertise, he took the post of parliamentary secretary of science and technology in 1999 in the Keizo Obuchi government.

After this post, he served as New Komeito's policy chief.