Ryosei Akazawa (born 1960) is a Japanese politician whose work has involved transport administration, trade negotiations, and economic policy. Born in Tokyo, he graduated from the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Law and joined the Ministry of Transport in 1984. He earned an MBA at Cornell University in 1991. His civil-service career included Japan–U.S. aviation negotiations, transport planning at the Hokkaido government, international policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and overseas business at Japan Post. First elected to the House of Representatives for Tottori’s second district in 2005, he served as parliamentary vice-minister for transport, state minister at the Cabinet Office, and state minister of finance. He became minister responsible for economic revitalization in 2024 and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2025. Drawing on his legislative work, his 2017 Japanese-language book “Tero-to Junbi-zai: Me no Mae ni Aru Kiki ni Ikani Tachimukau ka, Kokkai 38 no Ronten” examines the relationship between the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and domestic legislation, the conditions constituting the offense, and privacy and other human rights. It uses parliamentary answers, diagrams, and columns to explain his position on reconciling crime prevention with rights protection. His role in the 2025 Japan–U.S. tariff talks became the subject of “Toranpu Kanzei: Kosho no Kiroku” in 2026. The book recounts his emphasis on investment rather than tariffs, the work of an interministerial negotiating team, and the July agreement. It followed the subsequent efforts to resolve discrepancies in announcements through the signing of an investment memorandum of understanding in September, recording the negotiating minister’s decisions and the course of the talks.
