Seiji Maehara (前原 誠司, Maehara Seiji; born 30 April 1962) is a Japanese politician who has served as a member of the House of Representatives of Japan since 1993. Maehara has served as a leader and a member of various political parties, and has run in several party leadership elections. As of 2026, he sits in the Diet as a member of Ishin no Kai. Beginning his political career in Kyoto, Maehara was initially a member of smaller opposition parties before joining the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), serving as its leader from 2005 to 2006. After the DPJ was victorious in the 2009 general election, Maehara served as Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and Minister of Foreign Affairs under the cabinets of Prime Ministers Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan, before resigning from the cabinet in March 2011 after he acknowledged receiving illegal donations from a South Korean national living in Japan. In 2016, Maehara contested for the leadership of the Democratic Party, the successor party of the DPJ, losing to Renho. He later replaced her as leader on 1 September 2017 until its dissolution later that month. After spending some time with Kibō no Tō and the Democratic Party for the People (DPFP), Maehara founded a new party in 2023, Free Education for All, which was broadly centrist and focused on building a coalition against the LDP. In preparation for the 2024 general election, the party merged with the Osaka-based Ishin no Kai party (Japan Innovation Party). Two months later, he was elected the party's co-leader and representative in the National Diet, serving alongside Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura. Maehara would resign the following summer to take responsibility for the party's lackluster results in the 2025 Upper House elections. Being succeed by Fujita Fumitake, Maehra has remained on the backbenches since. Maehara is viewed as a "China war hawk" and a proponent of close ties with the United States. He is also often viewed as being politically conservative, while supporting socially liberal policies, such as the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Source: “Seiji Maehara”, English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), excerpt