Mr. Seiji Kihara is serving his seventh term as a member of the House of
Representatives and is currently Chairperson, Finance Committee of the Liberal
Democratic Party.
Mr. Kihara was born in 1970 and began his career at the Ministry of Finance in 1993
after graduating from the University of Tokyo with a B.A. in Law. He held numerous
positions in the Ministry and also studied at the London School of Economics and
Political Science (LSE), receiving his M.A. Mr. Kihara became the first Japanese
official to be seconded to Her Majesty’s Treasury in the United Kingdom. He then left
the Ministry in 2005 and ran successfully for a seat in the House of Representatives.
In 2013-14, Mr. Kihara served as the Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs.
He later served as the State Minister for Foreign Affairs (2015-16), Deputy
Chairperson and Chief Secretary of the LDP Policy Research Council (2017-20), Chair
of the House of Representatives Committee on Cabinet (2020), Deputy Chief Cabinet
Secretary (2021-23), and the Chairperson of the LDP Election Strategy Committee
(2024-25).