Muneo Suzuki

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Muneo Suzuki (鈴木 宗男 Suzuki Muneo, born 31 January 1948) is a Japanese politician from Ashoro, Hokkaidō. He is typically referred to as "Muneo", because his last name, "Suzuki", is one of the most common names in Japan.

[edit] Early career

He graduated from the Department of Political Economy at Takushoku University in 1970, but began working before he graduated for Ichiro Nakagawa, a Japanese member of the House of Representatives. Nakagawa committed suicide in a hotel in January 1983 for unknown reasons. Suzuki hoped to run for his seat, but Ichiro's son Shoichi Nakagawa, a Tokyo native, moved to Hokkaidō to run for his father's seat, and Suzuki successfully ran for a seat in a neighboring district. He was elected in December 1983 as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

He was appointed Head of the Hokkaido Development Agency and the Okinawa Development Agency in 1997 and later as Vice Minister of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

He is unique in that two of his aides are African nationals. It is not unheard of for Japanese politicians to have East Asian or Western aides for short periods of time, but Suzuki is the only one to have hired black Africans for permanent positions.

[edit] Scandal

In 1999, while Suzuki was the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary to the former Prime Minister Obuchi, he pressured the Foreign Ministry to fund the Japanese-Russia Friendship House (nicknamed the "Muneo House"), which became a scandal in 2002 when it was revealed

He left the LDP in 2002 and was arrested later that year for suspicion of accepting bribes from two Hokkaidō companies. He did not run for reelection in the 2003 elections on the stated grounds that he was undergoing surgery to treat stomach cancer. His secretary Akira Miyano was convicted of bribery in 2003, and Muneo was sentenced for two years in November 2004.

Muneo nonetheless ran for the House of Councillors in 2004. He was defeated, but ran successfully for the House of Representatives of Japan in the 11 September 2005 elections after forming the New Party Daichi. He is the only elected member of the party.