PROFESSIONAL LUNCHEON
Kazuhiro Haraguchi,
Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications

The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation.

From the Japan Post group's reorganization to tax reform and from a digital terrestrial television standard to voting rights for foreign nationals, Kazuhiro Haraguchi presides over the powerful Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. He is prepared to answer questions about these key and divisive issues facing the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama during his appearance at the Club.

Haraguchi recently revealed a plan to reorganize the Japan Post group through a merger between group companies. He has also vowed to introduce legislation aimed at promoting decentralization of power at an early date and says he is receptive to a proposal to give voting rights to foreign nationals with permanent residency in gubernatorial, mayoral and local assembly elections in Japan. Haraguchi is also at the forefront of Japan's campaign to promote the digital terrestrial television standard developed in Japan, which several Latin American countries, such as Brazil and Argentina, have decided to adopt.

Haraguchi studied politics at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management during the 1980s after graduating from the University of Tokyo. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1996 on the ticket of the New Frontier Party, founded in 1994 by Ichiro Ozawa, now secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. He joined the newly founded DPJ in 1998.

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Kazuhiro Haraguchi, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications