Yukihisa Fujita - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Fujita was born April 19, 1950 in Hitachi, Ibaraki. He graduated from Ibaraki University Junior High School in 1966, and Mito Dai-ichi High School in 1969. He attended the Department of Philosophy, the Faculty of Letters of Keio University and graduated with a B.A. in 1975.

From 1975 to 1977, Fujita participated in the Moral Re-Armament (MRA, now Initiatives of Change ) Goodwill Ambassador “Song of Asia” program, and visited 14 countries with 50 youths from 15 countries in Asia and Oceania staying at about 100 homes in those countries he visited. He has visited 48 countries and has participated in volunteer work in many of those countries. He has had homestays at over 200 homes. He is a founding member of Association for Aid and Relief, an NGO founded in 1979, and later became a member of the Board of Directors. In 1984, he became a member of the Board of Directors of the NGO International MRA Association of Japan (Now International IC Association of Japan).

In 1996, Fujita, as a member of the original DPJ, was first elected to the House of Representatives, the lower house of Japan’s parliament. He represented the Tokyo proportional representation constituency and was elected with the support of Yukio Hatoyama who later became Prime Minister of Japan. Fujita became known as the country’s first national politician with an international NGO background. After losing the 2000 re-election against Eita Yashiro, Fujita served as a policy advisor for Hatoyama, and was elected to the House of Representatives for the second time in 2003. Fujita lost in the 2005 election against Akihiro Ohta. In 2007, when the incumbent Moto Kobayashi retired, Fujita ran for election in the House of Councillors. He won Kobayashi’s seat, representing Ibaraki, a constituency which tends to be a stronghold of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Fujita received 540,174 votes, which is a record for a DPJ member in Ibaraki.

In September, 2007, one of Fujita’s aides was arrested for violation of the stimulants control law. Fujita apologized at a press conference and resigned as Deputy Director General of the DPJ’s International Department, Next Vice Minister of Defense, and Vice President of Ibaraki Prefectural Chapter of the DPJ. He was reinstated to those positions in March 2008.