Akamatsu began his professional life in a transportation company (Japan Express) although his career since has largely been in politics, first in the Aichi prefectural assembly, which he entered at 30 years of age as a Japan Socialist Party (JSP) member, spending 11 years there, then in the Diet from 1990. At 45, Akamatsu became the youngest-ever secretary-general of the JSP, appointed to the post after only three years in national politics. In 1996, he switched to the DPJ.

A rather rare bird as a second generation JSP Diet politician, Akamatsu was born to a political household as the eldest son of a former vice-chairman of the socialist party, Akamatsu Isamu. He claims to have acquired his first taste of politics in his high school days, but he’s since spoken out against ‘nepotistic succession’ amongst Diet members.

Akamatsu does not seem to have any particular policy specialism, having served as a director of the Lower House State Basic Policy Committee and its Foreign Affairs Committee, and as chairman of the DPJ’s Diet Affairs Committee. His skills are clearly not on the policy side but as a party apparatchik. He has proved himself in a number of senior DPJ executive posts, serving as DPJ vice-president under Maehara Seiji in 2005, and continuing in this position under the new leader Ozawa Ichiro.

Akamatsu excels as an electoral strategist. As chairman of DPJ Election Campaign Committee, Akamatsu directed the DPJ’s resurgence in the 2003 Lower House election and was even more successful in the 2007 Upper House election, when the DPJ again triumphed. The jewel in the crown is, of course, the 2009 election victory. It is difficult not to conclude that Akamatsu’s ministerial posting is a reward for services rendered. As Election Campaign Committee chief, Akamatsu’s role in the DPJ’s victorious campaign would have been pivotal. He ranks as deputy to Ozawa as chief electoral strategist.

Akamatsu was simply too senior and too competent to overlook for a top cabinet position. Besides competence in party affairs, three other criteria also appear to be important. First, is his age – 61. The Hatoyama Cabinet is predominantly a cabinet of baby boomers. The seniority principle lives on.

Secondly, Akamatsu is a party loyalist, having been in the DPJ since its first incarnation. He jumped ship from the JSP successor party – the Social Democratic Party (SDP) – to the DPJ in 1996, so he’s been there since the beginning. His personal loyalty to Ozawa merely cements his dedication to the party cause. Akamatsu is an Ozawa fan and has stuck with him through thick and thin. When Ozawa was embroiled in his political funding scandal earlier this year, Akamatsu made supportive comments about Ozawa’s particular aptitude for demolishing the LDP. As head of the Election Campaign Committee, Akamatsu also stepped up by leading a nationwide effort to build alliances with the SDP and PNP ahead of the Lower House election. The Mainichi Daily News on 6th May reported: ‘As Ozawa places importance on forming a united front with other opposition parties, Akamatsu, a veteran politician hailing from the now-defunct Japan Socialist Party, is aiming to embody Ozawa’s vision.’ Akamatsu was well placed to accomplish this mission. In his previous life as JSP secretary-general he was pivotal in building the seven-party coalition that took power in 1993 when his original links with Ozawa were forged.

Thirdly, political balance (one of two ex-socialists in the cabinet) and group (‘factional’) balance appear to be important factors determining the make-up of the Hatoyama Cabinet. Akamatsu has played a prominent role in one of the DPJ’s main groups on the left – the Shinseikyoku Kondankai – with former JSP and SDP politicians at its core. Not surprisingly, this group has been strong on social policy and is very much against constitutional revision. Akamatsu was the real mover and shaker in the group, which used to be the second biggest grouping in the DPJ and also its most left-wing (see [pdf] Patrick Kollner, ‘Factionalism in Japanese Political Parties Revisited or How do factions in the LDP and DPJ differ?’, Japan Forum, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2004, pp. 87-109). Akamatsu once described former LDP director-general of the Defence Agency Hirota Nosei’s remark that Japan was forced into World War II by the United States as ‘erroneous, irresponsible and anachronistic’.

For all these reasons, it is not surprising that Akamatsu landed a cabinet post, but it is somewhat surprising that he landed the MAFF. Does he have the right credentials to lead policymaking on agriculture? Clearly he represents something of an experiment, although ex-METI official, Jun Okumura, argues that it is a very solid cabinet.

Where do Akamatsu’s former socialist party credentials place him on the agricultural policy spectrum? He can be relied on philosophically to support the DPJ’s direct income compensation policy for individual farm households, including small farms, which he has already publicly committed himself to introduce by 2011. He is no economic reformer, regarding Koizumi’s structural reforms as having created greater social inequalities and inflicted particular damage on regional economies. Akamatsu has also publicly committed himself to revitalising rural communities, although if he follows DPJ precepts, this will not be accomplished by the usual public works spending.

The really big question, however, is whether Akamatsu will support further market opening for agriculture and how deeply his agricultural protectionism goes. The early signs are not particularly auspicious. He says that ‘supporting rural economies and farming…[are] the top priorities in trade talks. I can see tough negotiations ahead. I’ll do my job in earnest to keep these lines.’

If Akamatsu follows his former SDP party’s lead, he will want even to roll back the 1994 Uruguay Round agreement on Japanese rice market access. As a DPJ loyalist he will also be following party agricultural policy, which places a big emphasis on food safety (not good news for US beef exports which are limited to animals 20 months or younger because of the risk of bovine encephalopathy) and boosting food self-sufficiency to 50-60 per cent, particularly in major grains (another important plank in the former JSP agenda). On the other hand, if he follows Foreign Affairs Minister Okada Katsuya’s lead, he will accept that higher food self-sufficiency is not necessarily incompatible with pursuing free trade, another important plank in the DPJ manifesto. The DPJ has committed itself to both FTAs and an early conclusion to the WTO, so it will take all of Akamatsu’s finely honed political skills to strike a balance.