Nobutaka Machimura
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Nobutaka Machimura at the Foreign ministry in Tokyo in a meeting with the US Secretary Rice.

Nobutaka Machimura and Condoleezza Rice.

Nobutaka Machimura (町村 信孝, Machimura Nobutaka^?, born October 17, 1944) is a Japanese politician. He is a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.¹ He was Chief Cabinet Secretary in the government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda from 2007 to 2008.

He attended the University of Tokyo and Wesleyan University in the United States. He was elected to his first term in the House of Representatives in the December 1983 election, and he has been re-elected in each election since. He became Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture on September 11, 1997, as part of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's second cabinet, and became State Secretary for Foreign Affairs on July 31, 1998, in Keizo Obuchi's first cabinet. In March 2000, he became Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, serving under Obuchi and his successor, Yoshiro Mori. On December 5, 2000, he became Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture and Director-General of the Science and Technology Agency, before becoming Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on January 6, 2001.¹

He was the Minister for Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi from September 27, 2004¹ to October 31, 2005. His goals included signing a treaty with Russia resolving a border dispute, and investigating the whereabouts of Japanese hostages who were kidnapped by North Korean agents during the 1970s and 1980s. He was replaced by Tarō Asō in the cabinet reshuffle that followed the September 11, 2005 election.

He was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs again by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on August 27, 2007.² As of 2007, he is the leader of the LDP's largest faction, and on September 14, 2007 he backed Yasuo Fukuda's bid to become Abe's successor, following Abe's resignation on September 12.³

In Fukuda's government, sworn in on September 26, 2007, Machimura became Chief Cabinet Secretary and State Minister in charge of Abduction Issues.⁴ He was replaced by Takeo Kawamura in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, which was appointed on 24 September 2008.⁵

He is the vice president of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians' Union.

Personal life

On December 18, 2007, Machimura said at an official press conference that he believes in the existence of UFOs.^{6 7} The Shukan Bunshun weekly quoted him as saying, “No matter what it looks like, the United States is a very conservative country.”

“Obama is black and Hillary is a woman. I guess it would be difficult for them to win,”the government’s chief spokesman, was quoted as saying in a gathering with reporters in February. “It will likely be McCain who will win the race in the end.”

However, his rebuttal to the magazine states that his best friend was African-American when he studied at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he was quoted as saying “It’s not in my mindset to discriminate against black people or women, “In fact, Secretary of State (Condoleezza) Rice was the person I trusted the most when I was foreign minister.”

References