Date of birth: Jan. 24, 1945

Party: Democratic Party of Japan

Electoral district: Lower House; Shiga No. 1 (eighth term)

As soon as he took up his post last year, Kawabata scrapped the preceding administrations' planned animation center and championed the high school tuition waiver as pledged in the DPJ's campaign manifesto.

The second son in a family that owns a 300-year-old pharmacy, Kawabata went to the graduate school of Kyoto University and started working at Toray Industries Inc. as a researcher.

He later became involved in union activities and won a Lower House seat for the first time in 1986 on the Democratic Socialist Party ticket.

He moved to Shinshinto and in 1998 joined the DPJ. Kawabata served as DPJ vice president and chaired the Lower House committee on audits and administration oversight.