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Kan Cabinet (Formed June 8, 2010)
STATE MINISTER IN CHARGE OF RECONSTRUCTING AREAS RAVAGED BY THE MARCH 11 QUAKE AND TSUNAMI and STATE MINISTER FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Tatsuo Hirano
Date of birth: May 2, 1954
Party: Democratic Party of Japan
Electoral district: Upper House; second term
The new reconstruction minister Tatsuo Hirano is a second-term House of Councillors member known as an expert on farm and economic policies.
Born and raised in Iwate Prefecture, one of the Tohoku prefectures hardest hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Hirano, 57, began his career in 1977 as a farm ministry bureaucrat after graduating from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Agriculture.
When first elected to the Diet in 2001, Hirano was a member of the now-defunct Liberal Party led by Ichiro Ozawa. In 2007 he was returned to the Upper House on the ticket of the Democratic Party of Japan, which absorbed the Liberal Party in 2003.
Hirano was picked by Prime Minister Naoto Kan as a senior vice minister of the Cabinet Office in September 2010. After the March disasters, Hirano took the lead in supporting survivors and other sufferers.
His hobby is mountain hiking.
*Appointed to take over duties of Ryu Matsumoto following his resignation July 5, 2011.
Subsequent changes
