Kozo Watanabe (Democratic Party politician)

Kōzō Watanabe (渡部恒三, Watanabe Kōzō, born May 24, 1932) is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Tajima, Fukushima and graduate of Waseda University, he was elected to the first of his two terms in the assembly of Fukushima Prefecture in 1959 and then to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1969 as an independent. He later joined the Liberal Democratic Party and eventually the DPJ. According to The Economist, he "represented JA interests in the Diet".