Shimizu Ryō

Shimizu Ryō (清水 亮; born 9 November 1974) is a Yamataian Yamatai Restoration Party (YRP) politician serving as the current Minister of National Security since 2019. Before becoming a politician, he was a police officer in the Nagato Provincial Police. He was first elected to the Teikoku Gikai in the 2008 general election, and later served as the Vice Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare during Yamamoto Hanako's first term. After the 2019 general election, Shimizu was appointed as the Minister of National Security under Yamamoto's second cabinet.

Shimizu has been representing the 1st District of Nagato Province in the Teikoku Gikai as a member of the YRP since 2008.

Early life and education
Shimizu was born and raised in Yamato City, Nagato, alongside five siblings. He attended Misawa Boy's School in Yamato and Yamato Southern Vocational Training School, attaining a diploma in logistics management. He accepted a scholarship from the National Police Agency and studied supply chain management at the Niihama Technological University, graduating in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in supply chain management.

In 2010, Shimizu attained a master's degree in political science from the Wanshu Kyūgakkō.

Police officer
In 1994, Shimizu joined the Nagato Provincial Police in order to serve the five-year bond as part of the police scholarship. He served as a logistics officer in the Nagato Provincial Police Central Headquarters in Yamato from 1994 to 1997, then transferred to the traffic police department, where he served from 1997 to 1999, when his bond ended. After a short time working for Fukujima Shipping Corporation, Shimizu decided to return to the police force in 2001, returning to the traffic police department.

Political career
Shimizu left the police force in 2006 and joined the YRP, running for Yamato mayor in the 2006 elections on a platform of increasing security across the city by installing cameras in crime-prone locations, as well as increasing public funding for kindergartens. He was defeated in the election by incumbent Miki Shoji.

In 2008, Shimizu contested for the Gikai seat for Nagato's 1st District, and won in the general elections. Despite his inexperience, he was convinced to take the position of Cabinet Secretary of Defence by prime minister and YRP leader Ishihara Junichiro, who promised to groom him for future political success. Ishihara hoped to use Shimizu to exert pressure on Ishihara's political rival Usui Hideo, who had been appointed Defence Minister to appease the YRP faction that Usui belonged to. However, Shimizu soon joined Usui's faction and was then abandoned by Ishihara's faction.

After Ishihara's 2009 cabinet reshuffle, Shimizu was replaced as Cabinet Secretary of Defence by Usui's successor, Yamamoto Hanako, under Ishihara's order. However, she convinced her ally Kikukawa Mariko, then in the newly-created position of Vice-Minister of National Security, to retain Shimizu as a special secretary. Shimizu declined the position.

Following the 2012 general election, Shimizu was reelected. Yamamoto invited him to join the board of inquiry formed to investigate why the YRP only won by a narrow margin in the election. This board of inquiry marked the start of a new Yamamoto-led faction in the YRP. Shimizu soon became one of Yamamoto's main supporters in the YRP, though he lacked the clout of more senior YRP members.

In the 2016 YRP presidential race, Shimizu endorsed Yamamoto. After the YRP victory in the 2016 general elections, Shimizu was appointed the Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism during Yamamoto's first term as Prime Minister.

Following the cabinet reshuffle after the 2019 elections, Prime Minister Yamamoto appointed Shimizu as the new Minister of National Security.