Kenji Yamaoka (山岡 賢次 Yamaoka Kenji, born April 25, 1943) is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Oyama, Tochigi and graduate of Keio University, he was elected to the first of two terms in the House of Councilors in 1983 and then to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1993. After losing his seat in 1996 as a member of the New Frontier Party, he was re-elected in 2000 as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He later joined the DPJ. He married the daughter of writer Sohachi Yamaoka and was adopted into the family. In September 2011 he was appointed as chairman of the National Public Safety Commission in the cabinet of newly appointed prime minister Yoshihiko Noda.[1][2]