Hidehisa Otsuji

Hidehisa Otsuji is one of those figures whose career doubles as a timeline of postwar Japanese politics. Born in Kagoshima in 1940, educated at the University of Tokyo, he entered the House of Councillors in 1989 and never really left: Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare from 2004 to 2005, Vice President of the upper house from 2010 to 2012, and finally its President from 2022 to 2024. What interests me is the shape of that arc. Presiding over a chamber is not a job you win by being the loudest person in your party; it requires a kind of trust that accumulates quietly over decades of committee work and negotiation. The health and welfare portfolio is much the same, all technical detail and little applause. That he took the President's chair in his eighties, in a system that rewards seniority but also demands stamina, is worth noting plainly.

Name (English)

Hidehisa Otsuji

Name (Japanese)

尾辻秀久

Reading

おつじ ひでひさ

Born

October 2, 1940 (age 85)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Dragon

Origin

Minamisatsuma, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

politician

University

University of Tokyo

• Official sitehttp://www.otsuji.gr.jp/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidehisa%20Otsuji
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%BE%E8%BE%BB%E7%A7%80%E4%B9%85
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5752333

Tags

• Kagoshima Prefecture
• politician

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.