Bunmei Ibuki

Who is Bunmei Ibuki?

Bunmei Ibuki is a Japanese politician. He is a Member of the House of Representatives serving the constituency of Kyoto Prefecture, 1st district, where, as of October 2006, he has been elected eight times. He was the Secretary General of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party from 2007 to 2008. In 2008, he was briefly Minister of Finance.

He was born in Kyoto to a family of textile wholesalers who had operated the business since the Edo period. He graduated with a BA from Kyoto University's economics department in 1960. At Kyoto University he was a member of the tennis club. Upon graduation Ibuki became a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance. He was dispatched to the Japanese embassy in London in 1965, where he stayed for four years.

Ibuki entered politics in 1983 at former Finance Minister Michio Watanabe's behest. He is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party and has served in a variety of government positions, including Minister of Labour and National Public Safety Commission chairman.

He was appointed Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology on September 26, 2006 as a part of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's first cabinet. In this position, he promoted the controversial revision of the Fundamental Law of Education. He was subsequently appointed as Secretary-General of the LDP in September 2007; less than a year later, he was replaced in that position by Taro Aso and was instead appointed as Minister of Finance. He is known for his knowledge of finance and tax and welfare policies. He held the post of Finance Minister for less than two months, however, and was replaced by Shōichi Nakagawa in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, appointed on September 24, 2008.