Yoshinobu Shimamura

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Yoshinobu Shimamura (島村宜伸 Shimamura Yoshinobu) (b. March 27, 1934) is a Japanese politician.

Born in Edogawa-ku in Tokyo, he graduat]d from the Faculty of Politics & Economics at Gakushuin University in 1956 and then entered ENEOS, a Japanese oil company. He also worked as an aide to the Head of the Defense Agency until running for the House of Representatives in 1976 as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.

He served as the Minister of Education for Prime Minister Murayama in 1995, a Socialist administration. He was appointed the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 1997 and served in that position until 2000, when he was defeated in his reelection campaign. He ran again in 2003 and was elected, and was once again appointed Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 2004 by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

He also commented, in 1997, on the issue of Japan's sexual enslavement of 200,000 women during the World War II that 1)comfort women during the war probably were proud of themselves to volunteer for the Japanese military, 2)Comfort women were recruited by private companies, not by the Japanese military, 3)most recruitment was done by Koreans or Chinese.

He opposed the Prime Minister's motion to dissolve the House of Representatives following the defeat of the government's postal privatization bill and was forced to resign in August 2005.