Nobutaka Machimura

Nobutaka Machimura (October 17, 1944 - June 1, 2015) was a Japanese politician who served as the 75th Speaker of the House of Representatives. Nobutaka Machimura was born in Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, and his native place is Ebetsu City, Hokkaido. He attended Setagaya Elementary School Affiliated to Tokyo Gakugei University, Setagaya Junior High School Affiliated to Tokyo Gakugei University, and Tokyo Hibiya High School, and graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tokyo in 1969. While studying at the University of Tokyo, he went to the United States as an exchange student to study at Wesleyan University. He is a key figure in the town and village faction of the Liberal Democratic Party. His father is a former member of the Japanese House of Representatives, Senate and Hokkaido Governor Machimura Kanego, and the former Japanese Senate President Fumihei Hara is his elder brother. He ran for election to the House of Representatives eight times and was successfully elected. In 1969, after graduating from university, he joined the Japanese government's Ministry of International Trade and Industry. In 1974, he worked at the Land and Resources Agency, and in 1969, he worked at the Japan External Trade Organization. In 1983, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time. He later served as Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and served as Minister of Education for the first time in the second Hashimoto reform cabinet. Later, he served as Parliamentary Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs in the Keizo Obuchi Cabinet. He has served as Japan's Foreign Minister since September 27, 2004. During his tenure, he successfully signed a border dispute treaty with Russia on the four northern islands (Southern Kuril Islands), and investigated the Japanese abductions by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. On April 17, 2005, he visited China at a time when Sino-Japanese relations were at a low ebb. In September 2007, he became Chief Cabinet Secretary. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives on December 24, 2014. In April 2015, he resigned as Speaker due to health reasons. He died in Tokyo on June 1 of the same year at the age of 70.