The government announced on Sunday a list of 3,987 people recognized for this year's autumn honors, including Nobuaki Koga, the former president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, also known as Rengo, and former Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa.
Koga, 72, and Ozawa, 70, received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.
Koga headed Rengo from 2009 to 2015. During his term, Koga led the labor union movement in Japan as head of the largest support organization for the former Democratic Party of Japan, the ruling party at the time. Ozawa assumed the post of environment minister in Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet in 2009.
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