Preceded by Takehisa Matsubara Role Japanese Politician Occupation Politician | Website Official website Party Tomorrow Party of Japan Name Takashi Kawamura | |
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Born November 3, 1948 (age 75)
Nagoya, Aichi, Japan ( 1948-11-03 ) Political party Genzei Nippon
Tomorrow Party of Japan Alma mater Hitotsubashi University | ||
Education Hitotsubashi University | ||
Takashi Kawamura (河村 たかし, Kawamura Takashi, born 3 November 1948) is a Japanese politician of the Nagoya-based Genzei Nippon (減税日本 "Tax Cut Japan") party, and a former member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). Kawamura is currently serving as Mayor of Nagoya.
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Biography
A native of Nagoya, Aichi and graduate of Hitotsubashi University, he was elected for the first time in 1993 as a member of Morihiro Hosokawa's Japan New Party after an unsuccessful run in 1990. He resigned from his office of a member of House of Representatives, ran for mayor of Nagoya, and was elected in April 2009.
On February 6, 2011 he won a landslide re-election victory. Voters in Nagoya gave him three times the votes of his DPJ rival. Also nearly three-quarters of voters supported a referendum to dissolve the sitting Nagoya assembly, since the mayor clashed with the assembly repeatably on issues such as devolution and cutting down the generous diets and retirement packages of assembly members to save costs for taxpayers.
The mayor announced plans in 2009 to completely reconstruct the main towers of Nagoya Castle that were destroyed during the Second World War in wood, just as in the original structure.
Controversy
On 20 February 2012, while serving as the Japanese representative of Nagoya, Mayor Takashi Kawamura made denialist statements about the Nanjing Massacre while receiving an official Chinese delegation from Nanjing. The incident led to the suspension of all official exchange between the two cities of Nagoya and Nanjing on 21 February.
Some Nagoya citizens oppose Takashi Kawamura's denial by organising lectures and setting a website.