is a Japanese politician who serves as a member of the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers (Japan), House of Peers. If the t ...

in the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

. He has represented the Hyogo at-large district as a member of the

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

since 2004. He served as

Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The minister is nominated by the Prime Minister of Japan and is appointed by the Emperor of Japan. ...

from 2021 to 2022.

Early life

Suematsu was born on December 17, 1955, in

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...

. He graduated from the School of Law and Politics,

Kwansei Gakuin University , colloquially known as , is a private, non-denominational Christian coeducational university in Japan. The university offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees to around 25,000 students in almost 40 different disciplines across 11 underg ...

in 1979 and worked for

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. ANA operates services to both domestic and international destinations and is Japan's largest airline, ahead of its main rival flag carrier Japan Airlines. the airline has approximate ...

Political career

Suematsu entered politics in 1983, successfully contesting the

Hyogo Prefectural Assembly The is the prefectural parliament of Hyōgo Prefecture. The assembly's 87 members are elected every four years in 40 districts by single non-transferable vote. Nine of the electoral districts correspond with the wards of Kobe city and the rema ...

election as a

(LDP) candidate. He served six consecutive terms in the assembly, and was elected deputy speaker of the assembly in 1996. In April 2003 Suematsu was elected to his sixth term, winning the highest number of votes in the three-member Tarumi district with 39.4%. On 24 June 2004 he resigned from the assembly to contest the House of Councillors election scheduled for the following month. In the election for two Councillors in the Hyogo at-large district, Suematsu finished second behind Shunichi Mizuoka of the

Democratic Party of Japan The was a Centrism, centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to Centre-left politics, centre-left, Liberalism, liberal or Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Japan, ...

with 33.5% of the vote. During his first term as a Councillor, Suematsu was appointed as a vice minister for finance in a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister

Yasuo Fukuda is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2007 to 2008. He was previously the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in Japanese history, serving in that role from 2000 to 2004 under Prime Ministers Yoshirō Mori an ...

. Suematsu retained the position when Fukuda was replaced by

Taro Aso Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in A ...

in September 2008 and remained in the position until the LDP lost power at the September 2009 general election. Suematsu was elected to a second term at the July 2010 House of Councillors election. On this occasion he received the highest vote with 29.4%. Mizuoka retained his seat in the House, finishing second in a field of seven candidates with 21.8%. On 10 August 2022, Suematsu was dismissed from the

Second Kishida Cabinet The Second Kishida Cabinet was the 101st Cabinet of Japan and was formed in November 2021 by Fumio Kishida, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and Prime Minister of Japan. The government was a coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party ...

because of ties to the

Unification Church The Unification Church () is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. It was founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unificatio ...

. His dismissal was part of a wider purge by the Kishida administration following the assassination of Shinzo Abe and increasing media scrutiny of LDP officials' close ties with the church.

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suematsu, Shinsuke Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) Members of the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly Living people 1955 births Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians