Keiko Nagaoka

Keiko Nagaoka
Keiko Nagaoka
永岡桂子
	Official portrait, 2023
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
	In office; 10 August 2022 – 13 September 2023
Prime Minister	Fumio Kishida
Preceded by	Shinsuke Suematsu
Succeeded by	Masahito Moriyama
Member of the House of Representatives
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 11 September 2005
Preceded by	Multi-member district
Constituency	Northern Kanto PR (2005–2021; 2024–present); Ibaraki 7th (2021–2024)
Personal details
Born	8 December 1953 (age 71); Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic
Alma mater	Gakushuin University

Keiko Nagaoka (永岡桂子, Nagaoka Keiko, born December 8, 1953) is a Japanese politician serving in the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. A native of Tokyo and graduate of Gakushuin University she was elected for the first time in 2005. Her husband was politician Yoji Nagaoka, who committed suicide on August 1, 2005.^[1]

Biography

Early life

Born in Shibuya, her father was the president of a feed company. She attended the Gakushūin for middle school and high school. In March of 1976 she graduated from the Law Faculty of Gakushuin University. In January 1978 she married Yoji Nagaoka, who at that time was a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. In 1995 her husband retired from the Ministry and entered electoral politics, joining the New Frontier Party, but did not win an election until he joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2003.

Political career

In 2005, Nagaoka's husband cast a vote in favor the privatization of the Japanese Post Office (which later became the Japan Post Network in 2007), thereby incurring the wrath of Banking Minister Shizuka Kamei, who was the leader of his faction within the LDP. A magazine called Nagaoka a traitor for this action. On August 1, Nagaoka reported to the police that her husband had hanged himself. Although he did not leave a suicide note, stress over political matters was widely cited as the reason.^[2]

Following her husband's suicide, Nagaoka announced her candidacy for his seat (Ibaraki District 7) in the 2005 Japanese general election, with the assent of the LDP.^[3] Although defeated for the District 7 seat by Kishirō Nakamura (independent), she won a proportional seat in the Kanto block proportional seat, and became a member of the House of Representatives.^[4]

In the 2021 Japanese general election she defeated Kishirō Nakamura (previously unbeaten after 14 elections).^[5]

References

^ 政治家情報〜永岡桂子〜. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Archived from the original on 2007-12-03. Retrieved 2007-10-08.
^ "LDP lawmaker Nagaoka found hanged". The Japan Times. Tokyo. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
^ "「自殺」弔いVS出所元大臣" [Suicide grief vs. an absent former minister]. Yomiuri Shimbun. 2005-08-11. Archived from the original on 2016-08-11. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
^ "小選挙区茨城 : 開票結果 : 総選挙2005" [Local election districts: Ibaraki: Poll results: 2005 Elections]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
^ Kano, Mikio (November 2, 2021). "「14勝0敗、無敗の男」なぜ負けた中村喜四郎氏、奪われた支持層" [After 14 years of invincibility, why did he lose? Kishiro Nakamura's vanishing support base]. The Asahi Shimbun on-line edition (in Japanese). Tokyo. Retrieved November 2, 2021.

Political offices
Preceded by Shinsuke Suematsu	Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2022–2023	Succeeded by Masahito Moriyama

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[1] 政治家情報〜永岡桂子〜. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Archived from the original on 2007-12-03. Retrieved 2007-10-08.

[2] "LDP lawmaker Nagaoka found hanged". The Japan Times. Tokyo. Retrieved November 2, 2021.

[3] "「自殺」弔いVS出所元大臣" [Suicide grief vs. an absent former minister]. Yomiuri Shimbun. 2005-08-11. Archived from the original on 2016-08-11. Retrieved 2016-06-26.

[4] "小選挙区茨城 : 開票結果 : 総選挙2005" [Local election districts: Ibaraki: Poll results: 2005 Elections]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 2016-06-26.

[5] Kano, Mikio (November 2, 2021). "「14勝0敗、無敗の男」なぜ負けた中村喜四郎氏、奪われた支持層" [After 14 years of invincibility, why did he lose? Kishiro Nakamura's vanishing support base]. The Asahi Shimbun on-line edition (in Japanese). Tokyo. Retrieved November 2, 2021.

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