Takehisa Matsubara

Takehisa Matsubara (松原 武久, Matsubara Takehisa, born January 26, 1937) is the 20th mayor of Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture (愛知県), Japan. A native of Owariasahi (尾張旭市), also in Aichi Prefecture, and graduate of Aichi University of Education (愛知学芸大学) (Aichi Gakugei Daigaku). He was first elected in April 1997.

Biography

Matsubara served as a primary and secondary school teacher in his early career. His subject was the National Language of Japan, Japanese. He was later a school principal and also Superintendent of Schools for the City of Nagoya. He was inaugurated as Mayor of Nagoya in April 1997. In 2005 he was elected to his third term as Mayor. In City Council he has welcomed recommendations from all factions and parties barring only the JCP (Japanese Communist Party) representative. He has been known to show great enthusiasm for large building projects, but has been weak on social welfare issues.

On October 23, 2008 Mayor Matsubara announced that he would not be running for re-election in the Spring of 2009 due to health concerns over his advanced age (71). The Asahi Shimbun reports, however, that fall-out from his recent "slush fund" scandal may also have contributed to his decision to stand down^[1] after more than a decade in office.

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