Date of birth: March 6, 1938

Party: Democratic Party of Japan

Electoral district: Upper House; Nagano (fourth term)

Kitazawa is retaining the post of defense minister, which he also held under the administration of Yukio Hatoyama.

In the Hatoyama Cabinet, he ordered the Maritime Self-Defense Force to terminate its international antiterrorism refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.

He has also held the difficult role of lobbying local Okinawa governments to accept the transfer of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to Nago.

The Nagano native, who kept his Upper House seat in July's election, began his political career as a Diet member's secretary. He was elected in 1975 to the Nagano Prefectural Assembly, where he served 17 years.

Kitazawa was elected in 1992 to the Upper House on the Liberal Democratic Party ticket but bolted to Shinshinto the next year. He joined the DPJ in 1998.