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Kishirō Nakamura
Kishirō Nakamura (中村 喜四郎, Nakamura Kishirō, born April 10, 1949) is a former Japanese politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Sakai in Ibaraki Prefecture and a graduate of Nihon University, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1976. After winning 14 elections in a row without a single defeat at the polls, he lost to Keiko Nagaoka in the election of October 21, 2021.[1] BiographyEarly lifeBorn in the town of Sakai in Ibaraki, his birth name was Shin Nakamura (中村伸). Both his parents were involved in politics and both became members of the Upper House of the Diet; his father and namesake from 1965 to 1971 and his mother, Tomi Nakamura, from 1972 to 1977. He graduated from Keimei Gakuen High School, a Protestant school in Akishima, Tokyo. In 1972, he graduated from the Nihon University College of Law; prior to graduating, he began working in the office of Kakuei Tanaka, serving as Tanaka's private secretary.[2] Nakamura would later mimic how Tanaka interacted with his constituents and the contents of his speeches.[3] First election and name changeIn the 1976 Japanese general election, running as an independent, Nakamura was elected to the House of Representatives for Ibaraki District 3. For the election, he had changed his legal name to Kishiro Nakamura ("Junior"), and thus inherited the support network developed over the years by his father, Kishiro Nakamura ("Senior").[4] Nakamura later joined the Liberal Democratic Party. Bribery ConvictionIn 1994 Nakamura became involved in a political corruption case concerning construction companies buying favors from lawmakers, known as zenekon oshoku ("general contractor corruption"). Nakamura was arrested suspected of receiving bribes from the Kajima Corporation.[5] Nakamura left the Liberal Democrats but managed to remain in the Diet throughout several elections by running as an independent while the case was going through the courts. In January 2003 he lost his appeal to the Supreme Court of Japan, his prison sentence was finalized and he lost his Diet seat.[6] Reelection & RetirementNakamura was released from prison in January 2004. In the 2005 general election he regained his seat in the Ibaraki 7th district and held unto it until 2021. In the 2021 general election he ran as a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party and lost for the first time in his career but managed to gain a seat through the Northern Kanto proportional representation block. Before the 2024 general election Nakamura announced his retirement from politics. His son Hayato Nakamura ran in his stead and gained his father's old seat in the Ibaraki 7th.
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