TOKYO – Shunichi Suzuki, appointed as chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s General Council, is known as having twice served as minister in charge of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The 66-year-old is the son of former Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki, who also headed the LDP General Council, the party’s decision-making body.

After working as a secretary for his father, Suzuki was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1990 and is now serving his ninth term as a lawmaker from an Iwate Prefecture constituency. He has worked as environment minister.

A Waseda University graduate, Suzuki also served as the chief of a lower house committee on reconstruction after the deadly March 2011 earthquake in northeastern Japan.