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extra=31 October 1945 – 4 December 2024 was a Japanese politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives. He was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the Koga faction. He was the cousin of Kiyoko Fukuda, who married Prime Minister of Japan Yasuo Fukuda.
Ota entered politics in 1980 with the help of his father-in-law, the governor of Fukuoka. He has since been involved mainly in economic policy. Under Noboru Takeshita in the late 1980s, he advocated the introduction of the consumption tax. Ota also participated in changes in the Commercial Law in the late 1990s and realignment of government ministries and agencies in 2001. Ota left the LDP in 1994 to form a small party, but returned to the LDP the following year.
During the debate on terrorism in January 2008, he claimed that Fukushima was an "ultra-leftist".
On 1 August 2008, Yasuo Fukuda named Ota as the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the cabinet list. However, he resigned the post on 19 September 2008, following a scandal over Osenmai or Jikobeikoku. He stated: "I met with Prime Minister Fukuda and told him my decision to resign, considering the seriousness of the tainted rice problem for the society." Yasuo Fukuda accepted the resignation. Ota was informed of the problem in January 2007 but said he saw no need to make "too much of a fuss over it". The rice, tainted with pesticide methamidophos and mould, was for industrial uses only, but was resold, used and served to make lunches for thousands of schoolchildren and nursing home patients.
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