was a Japanese

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

serving in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

(national legislature) as a member 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, ...

Overviews

Goh Chok Tong and Yoshito Sengoku 201205

He was born in

Tokushima, Tokushima is the capital city of Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku island in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 245,264 in 122,539 households and a population density of 1,280 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography The ci ...

prefecture. While studying in the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

, he passed the bar exam and therefore dropped out of the university. He was elected for the first time in 1990 as a member of the

Japan Socialist Party The was a major socialist and progressive political party in Japan which existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was the primary representative of the Japanese left and main opponent of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party for most of its ex ...

. Viewed as a close ally of Prime Minister

Naoto Kan is a Japanese former politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to ...

, the opposition

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 ...

has labeled Sengoku as the "second" Prime Minister of the Kan cabinet. Sengoku denies that he wields any extraordinary influence in the government and praised Kan as a "strong leader". In January 2011, he was ousted from his position as a top cabinet member due to swelling pressure from the opposition, namely the Liberal Democratic Party and

Komeito Party , formerly New Komeito (NKP) and commonly referred to as simply Komei, is a political party in Japan founded by the leader of Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, in 1964. It is generally considered centrist and socially conservative. Since 2012, it ha ...

, to execute cabinet reform. Sengoku was replaced by

Yukio Edano is a Japanese politician who served as the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan from its formation in 2017 until 2021. He has served in various significant political roles, including the 3rd Policy Research Council Chairperso ...

, who was expected to yield much influence over Kan as a protégé of Sengoku. In March 2011, Prime Minister Naoto Kan appointed Sengoku as

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary The is an official in the Japanese government who assists the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Since July 1998 there have always been three Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries at any given time. Role The Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries are customarily ...

. He lost his seat in the December 16, 2012

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

br>Nothing left for the election-gutted DPJ to do but rebuild December 18, 2012
/ref>

References

External links

Official website
, - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sengoku, Yoshito 1946 births 2018 deaths Democratic Party of Japan politicians Government ministers of Japan 20th-century Japanese lawyers People from Tokushima (city) Social Democratic Party (Japan) politicians University of Tokyo alumni Deaths from lung cancer in Japan Japan Socialist Party politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2003–2005 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2005–2009 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2009–2012