Akio Fukuda

Fukuda (centre) talking in a press conference, September 2011. is a Japanese politician of the Constitutional Democratic Party and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Imaichi, Tochigi and graduate of Tohoku University, he joined the city government of Imaichi in 1971 and became the mayor of the city in 1991, serving for three terms. He was elected to be the governor of Tochigi Prefecture in 2000 but lost his re-election in 2004. In 2005, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time.

In the February 2026 election, Fukuda was the candidate of the newly formed Centrist Reform Alliance in Tochigi 2nd district, but lost to Liberal Democratic Party candidate Kiyoshi Igarashi. He subsequently left the alliance, criticising the decision to form a new party and the placement of Komeito-affiliated candidates at the top of the party’s proportional representation lists.