Jin Matsubara

Jin Matsubara (松原 仁, Matsubara Jin, born July 31, 1956) is a Japanese politician. He is a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). He was appointed Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety and Minister for the Abduction Issue. Matsubara was formerly affiliated with Party of Hope and the Democratic Party (the Democratic Party of Japan).

Jin Matsubara
松原仁
Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission and Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety
In office
13 January 2012 – 1 October 2012
MonarchAkihito
Prime MinisterYoshihiko Noda
Succeeded byTadamasa Kodaira
Minister for the Abduction Issue
In office
13 January 2012 – 1 October 2012
MonarchAkihito
Prime MinisterYoshihiko Noda
Succeeded byKeishu Tanaka
Member of the House of Representatives
for Tokyo Proportional
Assumed office
16 December 2012
In office
11 September 2005 – 30 August 2009
Member of the House of Representatives
for Tokyo 3rd district
In office
25 June 2000 – 11 September 2005
In office
30 August 2009 – 16 December 2012
Member of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly
for Ota
In office
1989–1996
Personal details
Born
松原仁 (Matsubara Jin)

(1956-07-31) 31 July 1956
Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan
Political partySocial Security
Other political
affiliations		LDP (Before 1994)
NFP (1994–96)
Sun Party (1996–98)
GGP (1998)
DPJ (1998–2016)
DP (2016–2017)
Kibō (2017–2018)
Group of Independents (2018–2019)
CDP
Alma materWaseda University
WebsiteOfficial Website

Political career
Matsubara inspected Tōkyō Metropolitan Comprehensive Consumer Center. (on May 31, 2012)

In the first cabinet reshuffle of Democratic Party Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on January 13, 2012 he was appointed Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety and Minister for the Abduction Issue.[1] He left the cabinet on the October 1, 2012 cabinet reshuffle. Tadamasa Kodaira replaced him as Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission and Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety, and Keishu Tanaka took over as Minister for the Abduction Issue.[2]

Personal life

Matsubara is married with three children.[3] His oldest son Hajime Matsubara is a member of the Ota city assembly.[4]

Views on Second World War

He was a supporter of right-wing filmmaker Satoru Mizushima's 2007 revisionist film The Truth about Nanjing, which denied that the Nanking Massacre ever occurred.[5] In 2014 he refused to retract his comments denying the massacre.[6]

During Diet discussions of Japanese government efforts to clean up chemical weapons abandoned in China at the end of the Second World War, Matsubara questioned the existence of such weapons.[7]

On Monday August 27, 2012 Matsubara told a House of Councillors budget committee meeting that he may propose to other ministers a review of the 1993 statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yōhei Kōno admitting the Imperial Japanese Army's role in establishing and running "comfort stations" for troops with forcibly recruited comfort women, because "no direct descriptions of forcible recruitment have been found in military and other Japanese official records obtained by the government."[8]

Visits to Yasukuni shrine

On August 15, 2012 Matsubara, along with Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Yuichiro Hata became the first cabinet ministers of the DPJ to openly visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine on August 15 since the party came to power in 2009. Matsubara made his visit to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the end of World War II despite requests from South Korea to refrain from doing so,[9] and despite Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda requesting his cabinet not to do so.[10]

References
  1. Consumer Affairs Agency website Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety Jin MATSUBARA Archived 9 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on August 14, 2012
  2. The Japan Times Noda shakes up Cabinet third time October 2, 2012 Retrieved on October 2, 2012
  3. Consumer Affairs Agency website Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety Jin MATSUBARA Archived 9 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on August 14, 2012
  4. https://www.hajime-m.tokyo
  5. The Japan Times NANJING MASSACRE 70TH ANNIVERSARY December 6, 2007 Retrieved on August 21, 2012
  6. Yoshida, Reiji DPJ exec’s denial of Nanjing stands: Matsubara refuses to retract contentious remark made in 2007 February 7, 2014 The Japan Times Retrieved March 29, 2016
  7. Time Magazine Japan's China Weapons Cleanup Hits a Snag March 31 2008 Retrieved on August 14, 2012
  8. The Daily Yomiuri Noda: Isles, comfort women not linked August 28, 2012 Retrieved on August 28, 2012
  9. AsiaOne News Japanese cabinet minister visits Yasukuni Shrine August 15, 2012 Retrieved on August 15, 2012
  10. Stuff Japanese cabinet member makes controversial homage August 15, 2012 Retrieved on August 15, 2012
House of Representatives of Japan
Preceded by
(17 Representatives)		 Representative for the Tokyo PR block
2012–present
2005–2009		 Incumbent
Succeeded by
(17 Representatives)
Preceded by
Hirotaka Ishihara		 Representative for Tokyo 3rd district
2009–2012		 Succeeded by
Hirotaka Ishihara
Preceded by
Shinichirō Kurimoto		 Representative for Tokyo 3rd district
2000–2005
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