Fujita Fumitake | |
Native Name Lang: | ja |
Office: | Secretary-General of the Japan Innovation Party |
Predecessor: | Nobuyuki Baba |
Term Start: | 30 November 2021 |
Office1: | Member of the House of Representatives |
Term Start1: | 22 April 2019 |
Constituency1: | Osaka-12th |
Predecessor1: | Tomokatsu Kitagawa |
Birth Date: | 27 December 1980 |
Birth Place: | Sakai, Osaka, Japan |
Party: | Nippon Ishin no Kai (National) Osaka Restoration Association (Local) |
Alma Mater: | University of Tsukuba |
is a Japanese businessman and politician. He is a member of the House of Representatives for Nippon Ishin no Kai. He serves as Secretary-General of the party and Diet Group, having succeeded Nobuyuki Baba upon him being elected party leader.
He was born in Neygawa in Osaka Prefecture.[1] He graduated from Osaka Shijonawate High School, and then chose to attend the University of Tsukuba, majoring in sports industries. He was also a member of the Rugby teams in both High School and University.[2]
After graduating from University, he served as a P.E instructor at Shijonawate, his former High School, as well as Makino and Daito High Schools, all three of which were in Osaka.[2] He also coached the Rugby team at Shijonawate.[3] In 2005, he briefly left Japan to study sports management in New Zealand and Australia, before returning to Japan and working at a venture company. He then established KTAJ Co., LTD, a sports management business, and became its representative director.[2]
In 2012, he entered the first term of the Ishin Political School.[1] In 2017, he then decided to run in that year's general election for Osaka-12th as the Ishin candidate, facing off against LDP member Tomokatsu Kitagawa and JCP member Masanori Matsuo. He ultimately lost by five points, and was unable to secure a proportional block seat.[4] When Kitagawa passed away in 2018, he announced his candidacy in the by-election which occurred after. He ran against Tomokatsu's nephew, Shinpei Kitagawa, and former Opposition member Shinji Tarutoko on top of JCP member Takeshi Miyamoto. He won by nearly 8%, marking a gain for the party.[5]
In the 2021 Japanese general election, he won by nearly 20 points over Shinpei Kitagawa again. Once Toranosuke Katayama resigned as co-leader of the party and Nobuyuki Baba was appointed in his stead, the party chose to appoint Fujita as his replacement for Secretary-General.[6] In the 2022 Ishin leadership election, he supported Baba.[7]
He has been one of the foremost spokespersons in Nippon Ishin no Kai. He has also been extremely critical of the ruling LDP, stating that under no circumstances would Ishin form a coalition with the party, further saying that he would have to "see the election results before commenting on a coalition (with the CDP)."[8]
His family consists of his two sons and a wife. Fujita saw the company he was working at in 2008 briefly enter financial shock due to the Great Recession, and after starting his own business, ran multiple gyms, acupuncture clinics, and nurse care facilities.[3]