Nobuto Hosaka

Who is Nobuto Hosaka?

Nobuto Hosaka is a Japanese politician and member of the House of Representatives for the Social Democratic Party. He is currently the mayor of Setagaya, Tokyo.

Nobuto Hosaka campaigned and won the mayor’s job on an anti-nuclear platform in April 2011, just over a month after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. According to the Wall Street Journal, Hosaka "is determined to turn this city ward of 840,000 people, the largest in Tokyo, into the front-runner of a movement that will put an end to Japan’s reliance on atomic power and accelerate the use of renewable energy".

Hosaka opposes the death penalty, and holds the position of secretary general of the Parliamentary League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty. He is also highly critical of continued Japanese moral panic against the Otaku subculture in the nation, with one notable case of criticism displayed against public and media related assumptions and gossip surrounding the incidents of November 17, 2004, when Kaoru Kobayashi murdered a 7-year-old girl.

In 2006 and 2007, Hosaka joined the gay parade in Tokyo. His boss Mizuho Fukushima also joined with him in 2007.