Hirotaka Akamatsu

is a Japanese politician from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, a former minister and Vice Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan.

Life and career

A native of Nagoya and graduate of Waseda University, he was elected to the first of his three terms in the Aichi Prefectural Assembly and then to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1990 as a member of the Japan Socialist Party.

He was appointed Minister of Agriculture in 2009. In April 2010, he skipped the traditional visit by legislators to Ise Jingu, opting instead to take a holiday in Mexico with his wife. While he was on vacation, Japan suffered a large outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. His response to the outbreak was widely criticized and the Ministry of Agriculture apologized on his behalf on 31 May. The Hatoyama government collapsed in June and Akamatsu was not reappointed.

Akamatsu was the Vice Speaker of the House of Representatives between 2012 and 2014 and again between 2017 and 2021.