Ryuichi Yoneyama

Yoneyama was recruited by the Liberal Democratic Party to become their candidate for the Niigata 5th district in the 2005 general election. Despite the party doing well across the country in the election, he was defeated by the longtime incumbent and popular former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka. He had a rematch with Tanaka in the 2009 election. Despite increasing his share of votes, Yoneyama was unable to overcome the Democratic Party of Japan landslide sweeping the country in the election.

In 2011, he started working as lawyer specialising in cases of medical malpractice. He recontested the Niigata-5th seat in the 2012 election as a member of the Japan Restoration Party (JRP), this time finishing third. In the 2013 House of Councillors election, the JRP fielded him as their candidate for the Niigata at-large district, finishing fourth behind the three incumbent Councillors. Yoneyama would follow the party in its two subsequent mergers, first into the Japan Innovation Party and later into the Democratic Party.

Three-term Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida announced in 2016 that he was not running for another term in that year's election. This triggered a scramble among the major parties to find candidates for the coveted position. Niigata was not spared by the strong anti-nuclear sentiments sweeping across the country, particularly due to the presence of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in the prefecture. The power plant was run by TEPCO, the same company running the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The pro-nuclear camp spearheaded by the LDP supported the candidate of Mayor of Nagaoka Tamio Mori. In order to avoid splitting their votes, the opposition decided to coalesce towards one candidate for an election. Yoneyama was selected as the opposition's unity candidate, garnering the support of the SDP, LP and JCP. His candidacy was supported by the full force of opposition politicians, including DP president Renho, DP deputy president Kenji Eda, Niigata Councillor Naoki Kazama and newly-elected Councillor Yuko Mori (not related to Tamio). Yoneyama won the 16 October election by a 6% margin and was elected to public office for the first time in his career. His election was hailed as a major victory of the anti-nuclear power movement at that time.[3]

Yoneyama pursued a very cautious approach towards restarting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant during his time in office. He established a nuclear advisory committee early on his term to review the power plant's safeguards and the prefecture's nuclear disaster preparedness.[4] Despite the reactor restart being approved by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, Yoneyama strongly opposed TEPCO's effort for an immediate restart of the plant and declined to give the necessary authorisation for any operational resumptions.[5] His strong opposition pitted him against the pro-nuclear Abe administration, who threatened to cut Niigata's 1.2 billion yen (about $10.6 million) worth of grants if the reactors were not restarted.[6] He also occasionally criticised government ministers like Taro Aso.[7]

In April 2018, reports surfaced that Yoneyama had been paying women he met in dating sites. Yoneyama admitted that the allegations were true. He confessed to paying money to the women to simply win their favours, but acknowledged that it could create the impression of buying sex. He submitted his resignation on 18 April and left office on 27 April.[8] His resignation triggered an early gubernatorial election in June 2018 and the nuclear debate was expected to heavily feature in the campaign.[9]

Yoneyama said that he hoped his nuclear policies would be continued by his successor. He also ruled out returning to politics in the short term.[8]