Takayuki Kobayashi

The native form of this personal name is Kobayashi Takayuki. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Takayuki Kobayashi
小林 鷹之
Official portrait, 2017
Minister of State for Economic Security
In office 4 October 2021 – 10 August 2022
Prime Minister	Fumio Kishida
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Sanae Takaichi
Member of the House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 December 2012
Constituency	Chiba 2nd district
Personal details
Born	Takayuki Kobayashi (1974-11-29) 29 November 1974 Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic (since 2010)
Children	1
Education	Kaisei Academy
Alma mater	University of Tokyo
Occupation	Lawyer • Politician

Takayuki Kobayashi (小林 鷹之, Kobayashi Takayuki; born 29 November 1974) is a Japanese politician who served in the Kishida Cabinet as Minister for Economic Security from 2021 to 2022.

Life and career

Kobayashi was born in Ichikawa, Chiba, and educated at Kaisei Academy. His first application to the University of Tokyo, made in his final year of high school, was unsuccessful, which led him to spend an extra year studying as a ronin student to reapply. He succeeded on his second attempt and matriculated at the University of Tokyo in 1994, graduating with a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Law in 1999. While at the university, he served as captain of the rowing team.

He joined the Ministry of Finance in 1999 and worked in the Financial Bureau (ja:理財局), whose main task was to manage government bonds, fiscal investment and loans, and state property. Keizo Hamada, later the governor of Kagawa Prefecture, was Kobayashi's boss at the Bureau. After spending two years at Harvard, he received an M.P.P. degree from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2003. From 2007 to 2010, he worked as a diplomat at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C.

Having spent half of the first decade of the 21st century in the United States and participating in various international negotiations, he realised that Japan's international standing was declining at an alarming rate. He felt that indecisive politicians and their inward-looking power struggles were jeopardising the country's future, hence he decided to pursue a political career himself in 2010.

Political career

Election

In June 2010, he became the head of the Chiba Prefecture Second Constituency branch of the Liberal Democratic Party, and in December 2012, he was first elected to the House of Representatives in the 46th General Election for the House of Representatives, running for the Chiba Second Constituency on the Liberal Democratic Party's official ticket and the New Komeito Party's nomination.

Abe Cabinet

On 5 August 2016, he was appointed Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Defence in Abe Cabinet, and stepped down on 3 August 2017.

He was elected to the House of Representatives in the 48th general election in 2017.

Kishida Cabinet

In the 2021 LDP leadership election, he endorsed Sanae Takaichi. In the run-off election, he supported Fumio Kishida. He was appointed to the Kishida Cabinet as Minister of State for Economic security on 4 October 2021. Kobayashi left cabinet due to a reshuffle in August 2022.