is a Japanese politician and was the leader of the Democratic Party from 1 September 2017 until its dissolution later that month. He has also been a member of the House of Representatives of Japan beginning 1993.

Maehara was the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from 2005 to 2006, and later served as Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and Minister of Foreign Affairs under the cabinets of Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan, before resigning from the cabinet in March 2011 after he acknowledged receiving illegal donations from a South Korean national living in Japan. Maehara is viewed as a "China war hawk" and a proponent of close ties with the United States. He is also often viewed as being politically conservative.

Personal background
Maehara was born in Kyoto to parents from Tottori Prefecture. He attended the law faculty of Kyoto University, where he majored in international politics. He attended the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management from 1987 to 1991.

Maehara married his wife Airi (愛里) in June 1995; they have no children. He likes to take photographs of trains as a hobby.

Early political career
Maehara won election to the Kyoto Prefectural Assembly in 1991 with the support of, among others, future Diet member Keiro Kitagami. At the time, he was the youngest prefectural assemblyman in Kyoto history.

He was elected to the House of Representatives as a member of the Japan New Party of Morihiro Hosokawa in 1993. In 1994, he left the party and formed the "Democratic Wave" with several other young parliamentarians, but later that year joined the Sakigake Party, which was briefly part of the majority government. In 1998, he joined the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) when it was formed that same year.

As a member of the DPJ he focused on security affairs and often negotiated with the government.  In the shadow governments he has served as the Shadow Minister for Security Affairs and Shadow Minister for the Defense Agency.

Term as DPJ President
After the crushing defeat of the DPJ in the 2005 snap election and the resignation of DPJ leader Katsuya Okada, the elected representatives of the party met to choose a new leader. The two candidates were Naoto Kan and Maehara. Maehara defeated the 58-year-old Kan by a razor-thin count of 96–94 in open balloting by party members from both Houses of the Diet, with two members abstaining and two others having cast invalid votes. Maehara was appointed DPJ president on 17 September 2005.

However, Maehara's term as party leader was short lived. Although he initially led the party's criticism of the Koizumi administration, particularly in regards to connections between LDP lawmakers and scandal-ridden Livedoor, the revelation that a fake email was used to try to establish this link greatly damaged his credibility. The scandal led to the resignation of Representative Hisayasu Nagata and of Maehara as party leader on 31 March. New elections for party leader were held on 7 April, in which Ichirō Ozawa was elected president.

Cabinet
In the 2009 Japanese general election, the Democratic Party won a two-thirds majority of the House of Representatives, allowing the party to form a new government.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Maehara was appointed Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on 16 September 2009. In this role, he was the spokesman for a number of government initiatives, including:

 Cessation of construction work on Yamba Dam
 Opening Haneda Airport in Tokyo to long-haul international flights
 Bankruptcy restructuring of Japan Airlines
 Experimentation with reducing or eliminating tolls on the Japanese expressway network

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Then Prime Minister Naoto Kan reshuffled the cabinet effective 17 September 2010, making Maehara the youngest Minister of Foreign Affairs in postwar Japanese history. The main international relations event during his tenure as foreign minister was the 2010 Senkaku boat collision incident, which led to increased tensions between Japan and the People's Republic of China concerning their overlapping claims to the Senkaku Islands.

Resignation from the Cabinet
In March 2011, only four days before the 11 March earthquake and tsunami, Maehara resigned as Minister for Foreign Affairs after it emerged that he had accepted a political donation of ¥250,000 (approx. US$3,000) from a 72-year-old South Korean permanent resident of Japan who operated a restaurant in Kyoto. Maehara had known the woman since junior high school, but her foreign nationality made the donation illegal if it had been accepted intentionally. Maehara apologised to the nation for only holding the post for 6 months and for "provoking distrust" over his political funding. According to the Japan Times, the resignation would cause Japanese relations with the United States to weaken. The donation was revealed by an opposing party politician, Shoji Nishida; The Economist described the incident as a scandal based on a technicality that primarily illustrates the unsatisfactory treatment of Koreans in Japan.

Candidacy for Prime Minister
Following Kan's announced resignation in August 2011, Maehara initially planned to support Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, but broke off this support due to disagreement over whether to raise the consumption tax, and declared his own candidacy for the presidency of the DPJ on 22 August. He lost to Noda and Economy Minister Banri Kaieda in the first round of balloting on 29 August.

Second stint as leader of the Democratic Party
In 2016, the DPJ merged with Japan Innovation Party forming the Democratic Party. Maehara attempted to make a comeback at the leadership in the first leadership election post-merger, but lost against former minister Renho.

Renho resigned in July 2017 after the DP suffered a bad result in the 2017 Tokyo assembly elections. A leadership election was immediately held to select the new leader of the party. Maehara was one of the candidates contesting the election, along with former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. Through his reliable support from conservative DP and former JIP members, Maehara comfortably won the leadership election with 60% of the points up for grabs. He returned as the leader of the largest opposition party almost 12 years after ascending to the post for the first time.

Maehara's second stint as president was short and rocky. One of his first acts as the new president was to appoint rising-star lawmaker Shiori Yamao as secretary-general in his new executive. Immediately after her nomination, tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun published an allegation of affair against Yamao. Whilst the details were inconclusive, Yamao resigned from the party less than a week after the affair was reported, widely seen as an effort to halt further decline of DP's fledgling support. Maehara also faced a potential rival in Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, who grew increasingly confident after her party's landslide win in the Tokyo Assembly elections and was rumoured of planning to form a conservative national party to face Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the next general election.

Abe called a snap election less than three weeks to Maehara's ascension to the presidency. This threw the party into disarray, as it had not completed preparing its election platform. At the same day as Abe's election declaration, Koike finally launched a new party called Kibō no Tō (Party of Hope). Seeing Koike's high popularity at that time as a potential asset, Maehara coordinated with Koike on DP candidates' nominations for the election. Koike agreed to endorse DP candidates and Maehara effectively disbanded the party in order to allow the candidates run under the Kibō banner. However, despite Maehara's request, Koike imposed an ideological filter that effectively barred liberal-leaning members of the DP, such as Yukio Edano, from joining Kibō. This led Edano to form the Constitutional Democratic Party less than three weeks before election to house liberal DP members. Maehara himself ran as independent.

Koike's multiple blunders during the campaign led Kibō to fall well short of high initial expectations, becoming the second largest opposition party behind the Edano-led CDP. Maehara, whose political gamble had backfired, was under heavy pressure to resign from his position as DP president. Maehara resigned from his post and from the party on 28 October 2017, ending his tumultuous second term as leader of the Democratic Party.

Post 2017 election 
Maehara joined Kibō in November 2017. When Kibō merged with the Democratic Party in May 2018 to form the Democratic Party for the People, Maehara also joined the DPP.

References

External links
 

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1962 births
Living people
Kyoto University alumni
Democratic Party of Japan politicians
Foreign ministers of Japan
Ministers of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan
Japan New Party politicians
Members of the House of Representatives (Japan)
People from Kyoto
New Party Sakigake politicians
21st-century Japanese politicians
Members of the Kyoto Prefectural Assembly
Politicians from Kyoto Prefecture
마에하라 세이지(, 1962년 4월 30일 ~ )는 일본의 정치인으로 중의원 의원이다.

그는 2005년부터 2006년까지 민주당의 당수였으며, 국토교통대신과 하토야마 유키오 내각과 간 나오토 내각의 외무대신을 지낸 바 있다. 2011년 3월 재일 한국인 헌금 문제로 외무대신에서 물러났다. 2011년 민주당 대표 경선에 출마하지 않을 것이라고 밝혔지만, 이후에 출마, 3위를 기록해 결선 투표에 나가지 못했다. 하지만 결선 투표에서 자파 의원들에게 노다를 지원할 것을 지시해, 노다 내각 발족 이후 민주당 정책조사회장에 임명되었다.

그는 2017년 9월, 민진당 대표로 선출되었지만 1개월 여 만에 당이 희망의 당, 입헌민주당으로 갈라지면서 대표직에서 물러났다.

초기 생애 
교토시에서 돗토리현에서 온 부모에게 태어났다. 그는 자신이 국제 정치에서 우수했던 교토 대학의 법학부에서 수학하였으며, 1987년부터 1991년까지 마쓰시타 정경숙에서 수학하였다.

초기 정치 경력 
마에하라는 훗날의 국회 의원 기타가미 게이로를 비롯한 다른이들의 성원과 함께 1991년 교토부 의원에 선출되었다. 당시 그는 교토 역사상 부 연소자 의원이었다.

그는 1993년 호소카와 모리히로의 일본신당의 중의원으로 선출되었다. 1994년 탈당하여 몇몇의 다른 젊은 의원들과 함께 "민주적 경향"을 형성하였으나 그해 후반 다수 정부의 잠시 일부였던 신당 사키가케에 입당하였다. 1998년 그는 동녕에 형성된 민주당에 입당하였다.

민주당의 일원으로서 마에하라는 안정 정세에 전념하였고, 가끔 정부와 협상을 하였다.

민주당 당수로서 기간 
2005년 격변 선거에서 민주당의 패배에 부딪치고 민주당의 지도자 오카다 가쓰야의 사임 후, 당의 선출된 대표들은 새로운 당수를 선택하는 데 만났다. 2명의 후보들은 간 나오토와 마에하라였다. 마에하라는 중의원과 국회 둘다로부터 당원들에 의한 공개 투표에서 58세의 간을 96 대 94로 꺾고, 9월 17일 민주당의 당수로 임명되었다.

하지만, 당수로서 마에하라의 기간은 짧았다. 그가 시초적으로 당의 고이즈미 준이치로 행정부 비난을 이끌었어도 특히 자유민주당 의원들과 마에하라의 진실성에 크게 손해를 가져온 이 링크를 설립하는 데 속임수 이메일이 쓰였다고 밝힌 스캔들을 탄 라이브도어 사이에 연결로 여겨졌다. 스캔들은 3월 31일 중의원 나가타 히사야스와 마에하라의 사임으로 이끌었다. 당수를 위한 새로운 선거는 4월 7일에 열려 오자와 이치로가 당수에 선출되었다.

내각 
2009년 일본 총선에서 민주당이 중의원의 3분의 2의 다수를 이겨 당이 새로운 정부를 형성하는 데 허가하였다.

국토교통대신 
마헤하라는 2009년 9월 16일 국토교통대신으로 임명되었다. 이 역할에서 그는 다음과 같은 정부의 의안 제출권을 발표하였다. -

 얌바 댐에 건설 중단
 도쿄에서 장거리 국제 비행으로 하네다 공항 개장
 파산한 일본항공의 재구성
 일본의 고속도로망에 요금 축소 혹은 배제와 실험

외무대신 
당시 간 나오토 총리는 2010년 9월 17일 내각을 개조하여 전후의 일본 역사상 마에하라를 최연소 외무대신으로 만들었다. 마에하라의 외무대신으로서 직위 동안에 주요 국제 관계 사건은 센카쿠 열도에 일본과 중화인민공화국 사이에 근심적인 자신들의 주장을 겹친 긴장들을 늘이는 데 이끈 그해의 센카쿠 보트 충돌이었다.

내각으로부터 사임 
2011년 3월 마에하라는 교토에서 식당을 운영하던 72세의 재일교포로부터 자신이 2십 5만 엔의 정치적 헌금을 받은 것으로 나타난 후, 외무대신으로서 사임을 하였다. 마에하라는 그 여성을 중학교 시절 이래에 알고 있었으나 만약 그것이 고의적으로 받아졌으면 외국 국적인이 불법으로 헌금을 만들었을 것이다. 마에하라는 6개월만 직위를 보유하고 자신의 정치적 헌금에 불신임을 일으킨 것에 대하여 국가에 사과하였다. 저팬 타임스에 의하면 그의 사임이 일본의 미국과의 관계들에 약점을 가져올 것이라고 하였다. 헌금은 야당 정치인 니시다 쇼지에 의하여 드러났으며, 이코노미스트는 사건이 첫째로 재일교포들의 불만족스러운 대우를 설명한 전문적 사항에 기초를 둔 스캔들로 묘사하였다.

총리 후보 
2011년 8월 간 나오토 총리의 사임에 이어 마에하라는 시초적으로 재무대신 노다 요시히코를 지지하였으나 소비세를 늘이느냐에 불동의로 인하여 이 성원을 깨고 8월 22일 민주당의 당수를 위한 자신의 후보직을 선언하였다. 8월 29일 공개 투표의 1호에서 노다와 경제산업대신 가이에다 반리에게 패하였다.

역대 선거 결과

같이 보기 

 마쓰시타 정경숙
 민주당
 하토야마 유키오 내각
 간 내각 제1차 개조내각
 간 내각 제2차 개조내각
 재일 한국인

각주

외부 링크 
 마에하라 세이지 공식 사이트
 민주당 총 지부 연합회 홈페이지
 마쓰시타 정경숙

1962년 출생
살아있는 사람
교토시 출신
교토 대학 동문
민주당 (일본, 1998년)의 국회의원
일본의 국토교통대신
일본의 외무대신
일본회의 국회의원 간담회 관계자
희망의 당의 정치인