Chikara Sakaguchi

Chikara Sakaguchi
坂口 力
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare
In office 6 January 2001 – 27 September 2004
Prime Minister	Yoshirō Mori Junichiro Koizumi
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Hidehisa Otsuji
Minister of Health and Welfare
In office 5 December 2000 – 6 January 2001
Prime Minister	Yoshirō Mori
Preceded by	Yūji Tsushima
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Minister of Labour
In office 5 December 2000 – 6 January 2001
Prime Minister	Yoshirō Mori
Preceded by	Yoshio Yoshikawa
Succeeded by	Position abolished
In office 9 August 1993 – 28 April 1994
Prime Minister	Morihiro Hosokawa
Preceded by	Masakuni Murakami
Succeeded by	Kunio Hatoyama
Personal details
Born	(1934-04-01) April 1, 1934 Hakusan, Mie, Japan

Chikara Sakaguchi (坂口 力, Sakaguchi Chikara, born April 1, 1934) is a Japanese politician.

He was born in Mie Prefecture and obtained an MD from Mie University. In 1976, he ran for the House of Representatives as a member of Komeitō, and won a proportional representation seat from the Tokai bloc.

Sakaguchi was Minister of Labor in the 1993-94 coalition cabinet led by Morihiro Hosokawa. After the coalition government collapsed, he was the second-ranking officer of three other political parties, New Frontier Party (1994), Shintō Heiwa (1997), and New Komeito Party (1999).

In December 2000, he was appointed Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare in the LDP-Liberal-Komeito coalition cabinet of Yoshirō Mori. He retained this position under Junichiro Koizumi until September 2004.

Sakaguchi is currently deputy director of Komeito, and is the oldest and longest-serving Komeito member of the House of Representatives.