Chikara Sakaguchi

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Chikara Sakaguchi (坂口力 Sakaguchi Chikara, born April 1, 1934) is a Japanese politician.

He was born in Mie Prefecture and obtained an MD from Mie University. In 1976, he ran for the House of Representatives as a member of Komeito, and won a proportional representation seat from the Tokai bloc.

Sakaguchi was Minister of Labor in the 1993-94 coalition cabinet led by Morihiro Hosokawa. After the coalition government collapsed, he was the second-ranking officer of three other political parties, Shinshinto (1994), Shinto Heiwa (1997), and New Komeito (1999).

In December of 2000, he was appointed Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare in the LDP-Liberal-Komeito coalition cabinet of Yoshiro Mori. He retained this position under Junichiro Koizumi until September 2004.

Sakaguchi is currently deputy director of Komeito, and is the oldest and longest-serving Komeito member of the House of Representatives.