Kazuyuki Hamada

is a Japanese politician. He has served one term in the House of Councillors for the Tottori At-large district. After being elected in 2010 as a candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party, he changed parties three times before unsuccessfully seeking re-election as an independent candidate in 2016.

Early life and education Hamada was born in Yonago, Tottori on 17 March 1953. His father was employed at Japanese National Railways and his mother was from a farming family. He graduated from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies with a degree in Chinese language in 1975 and joined Nippon Steel the same year. After leaving Nippon Steel Hamada joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., becoming a Fellow and associate director in 1987. He obtained a Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University in 1992. Hamada joined the Party for Future Generations in November 2014, which changed its name to the Party for Japanese Kokoro in December 2015. From the same time Hamada served as the party's Diet leader.

2016 re-election campaign In April 2016 Hamada resigned from the Party for Japanese Kokoro and joined Initiatives from Osaka. Hamada's Tottori constituency was to be merged with the Shimane at-large district to create the Tottori-Shimane at-large district and contesting the new seat as a minor party candidate against Kazuhiko Aoki, the LDP's incumbent member for Shimane, would prove too difficult. Instead Hamada received a nomination to contest the summer 2016 election from the national proportional representation block as an Initiatives from Osaka candidate. His attendance was intended to gain support within the party for his national block campaign, and Hamada later explained that he had the party's permission to be absent from the House debate. However, the party's leader in the Osaka Prefectural Assembly, Kazunori Ohashi, said the party was unaware of his intended absence. Hamada submitted his resignation to the party on the same day, which was accepted the following day, 1 June 2016.

Hamada nominated for the July House of Councillors election as an independent candidate in the six-seat Tokyo at-large district. He came 16th in a field of 31 candidates, receiving just 0.5% of the vote. Meanwhile, Aoki won the merged Tottori-Shimane district with 62.7% of the vote in a three-candidate race.