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Noda Cabinet (Formed September 2, 2011)
JUSTICE MINISTER
Hideo Hiraoka
Date of birth: Jan. 14, 1954
Party: DPJ
Electoral district: Lower House; Yamaguchi No. 2 (fifth term)
Hiraoka passed both the bar exam and the civil service exam while attending the University of Tokyo.
He entered the Finance Ministry in 1976, and resigned in 1998 after working in the National Tax Agency's corporate tax department.
Hiraoka took public office for the first time in 2000, winning a Lower House seat representing Yamaguchi Prefecture's No. 2 district, long a stronghold of the rival Liberal Democratic Party.
In the 2005 general election, a landslide victory for the LDP driven by Prime Minister Junichi ro Koizumi's popularity, Hiraoka lost his seat by a mere 588 votes, but managed to stay in the Lower House through proportional representation.
He took back the Yamaguchi No. 2 seat in 2008.
Hiraoka was appointed state secretary for internal affairs and communications in September 2010.
Subsequent changes