Hideo Hiraoka

Hideo Hiraoka (平岡 秀夫, Hiraoka Hideo, born January 14, 1954) is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Iwakuni, Yamaguchi, Hiraoka passed the bar exam and civil service exam prior to his graduation at the University of Tokyo. In 1976 he entered the Ministry of Finance which he joined before resigning in 1998 after working in the National Tax Agency's corporate tax department. In 2000, after leaving the ministry, he was elected to a seat of the House of Representatives for the first time; the district he represented, Yamaguchi Prefecture's No. 2 district, was previously a stronghold for the rival Liberal Democratic Party. Following a large-scale upturn by the Liberal Democratic Party, Hiraoka lost his seat by 588 votes, remaining in the Lower House through a process known as proportional representation. In 2008 he took back the Yamaguchi No. 2 seat, marking his fifth term as its representative for the Lower House. Hiraoka was later appointed state secretary for internal affairs and communications in 2010. In September 2011 he was appointed Minister of Justice in the cabinet of newly appointed prime minister Yoshihiko Noda.