Yoshihide Suga (/m/0h7jl3)

Yoshihide Suga is a Japanese politician currently serving as Chief Cabinet Secretary. He previously served as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications in the cabinet of Shinzō Abe until August 2007. He was born in Ogachi, Akita Prefecture and obtained an LL.B. from Hosei University in Tokyo. He served as a secretary to Diet member Hikosaburō Okonogi for eleven years, then as secretary to the Minister of International Trade and Industry in 1984 and later as a member of the Yokohama city council. Suga was elected to the Diet of Japan in 1996. Originally a member of the Obuchi faction, he left the faction after refusing to support Obuchi in the 1998 party elections. He also refused to participate in the no confidence motion against Yoshirō Mori in 2000. and better relations with China and Korea as leader. Affiliated to the openly-negationist organisation Nippon Kaigi, Suga has formed a team to reexamine the "background" of the Kono Statement of 1993.