Date of birth: March 18, 1942

Party: DPJ

Electoral district: Lower House; Hokkaido No. 10 (seventh term)

As a veteran politician, Kodaira will be doing double duty by serving as minister of consumer affairs and food safety. He served as the chairman of the Lower House Steering Committee, which has great power in deciding the schedule for Diet deliberations.

After graduating from Keio University, Kodaira first worked for the trading conglomerate Tomen Corp. in 1969. A native of Hokkaido, Kodaira started a ranch in the town of Kurisawa in 1972. He was elected to the Lower House in 1990 under the now-defunct Democratic Socialist Party.

Kodaira has argued Japan should not join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact now under negotiations, saying it would severely damage Japan's agricultural and fishery industries.