A former bureaucrat at the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Hiroyuki Hosoda, the newly appointed chief Cabinet secretary, entered the world of politics following in the footsteps of this father, Kichizo, who served as transport minister.

Hosoda, 60, spent 19 years at the trade ministry, where he dealt with matters such as pricing policy. He also worked in the Washington representative office of Japan National Oil Corp. in the 1980s.

Elected to the House of Representatives from Shimane Prefecture in 1990, he became parliamentary vice minister for the then Economic Planning Agency in 1994 under Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and parliamentary vice MITI minister in 1999 in the second Cabinet of the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

A graduate of the prestigious University of Tokyo, Hosoda's first Cabinet appointment came in September 2002, when he was named state minister in charge of science and technology policy, Okinawan affairs and the settlement of the disputed Russian-held islands off Hokkaido.

He belongs to an LDP faction led by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, to which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi belonged until he took office.