Hiroshi Moriyama

Hiroshi Moriyama (森山 裕) is a Japanese politician who has served as Chairman of the General Council of the Liberal Democratic Party since 2023. He previously served as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from 2015 to 2016. He was a member of the House of Councillors from 1998 to 2004 and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2004.

A native of Kagoshima Prefecture, Moriyama served for many years on the Kagoshima City Council before entering national politics.

Early life
Hiroshi Moriyama was born on April 8, 1945, in an air raid shelter in Kanoya, in Kagoshima Prefecture, due to allied air raids. His family ran a farm and a newsstand. As a boy, Moriyama worked as a paper boy for his family's newsstand, delivering newspapers on his bicycle everyday before school.

After graduating from junior high school he began to work in the automotive industry while attending high school part-time. He graduated in 1965. In 1969, Moriyama started a used car dealership.

Political career
He entered politics in April 1975, when he was first elected to the Kagoshima City Council. He would be on the council for 23 years and served three times as chairman.

In July 1998, Moriyama was elected as a candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for the Kagoshima at-large district in the House of Councillors election. He would serve as parliamentary secretary for the Ministry of Finance from October 2002 to September 2003.

Shortly before the end of his term in April 2004, Moriyama resigned from the House of Councillors to run in a by-election in Kagoshima 5th district of the House of Representatives, caused by the death of Sadanori Yamanaka. Moriyama was elected with more than four-fifths of the votes. He opposed the privatization of the postal service pushed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Due to this, he became one of the 33 so-called "postal rebels" who were denied LDP endorsement in the 2005 election, but easily defended his seat as an independent against an LDP "assassin" candidate.

Like many other postal rebels, Moriyama returned the LDP under Koizumi's successor Shinzo Abe in December 2006. In July 2007 he joined the Kinmirai Seiji Kenkyūkai faction led by Taku Yamasaki. In August of the same year he was appointed Senior Vice Minister of Finance and served as such until August 2008. Moriyama served as the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the cabinet of Shinzo Abe from October 2015 to August 2016.

In August 2017 Moriyama was appointed chairman of the Diet Affairs Committee in the LDP. He would serve in this post for more than four years, the longest ever tenure. Moriyama remained when Yoshihide Suga succeeded Abe. He was noted as a close ally of Suga and Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai. Moriyama left his position when Fumio Kishida succeeded Suga in October 2021.

In December of the same year Moriyama became head of the Kinmirai Seiji Kenkyūkai due to the defeat of the previous head Nobuteru Ishihara in the 2021 House of Representatives election. In August 2022 he was appointed chairman of the Election Strategy Committee in the LDP, putting him in charge of the difficult task of coordinating candidates after a recent redistricting. He served in this position until September 2023, when he was appointed chairman of the General Council.