Takumi Nemoto

Takumi Nemoto (根本 匠) is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature).

A native of Kōriyama, Fukushima and graduate of the University of Tokyo he joined the Ministry of Construction (which is now part of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) in 1974. Leaving the ministry in 1991 he was elected to the Diet for the first time in 1993. Nemoto was appointed as Minister for Reconstruction in the Second Abe Cabinet on 26 December 2012. Nemoto has served as the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare from 2 October 2018 to 11 September 2019. In January 2019, it was revealed that the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare had been publishing inaccurate monthly labor survey data for nearly 15 years, which led to over 20 million people being underpaid in work-related benefits. The opposition accused Nemoto of being involved in a government coverup to boost Prime Minister Abe's Abenomics policies. A motion of no-confidence was filed against Nemoto on March 1 but was voted down by the ruling LDP coalition. As a member of a parliamentary committee responding to a petition advocating a law prohibiting businesses from forcing female workers to wear high-heeled shoes (KuToo movement), he expressed that it was "necessary and reasonable" to mandate this for female workers.