About Ken Akamatsu
Ken Akamatsu (Japanese: 赤松 健, Hepburn: Akamatsu Ken; born July 5, 1968) is a Japanese manga artist and politician who has served since 2022 as a member of the House of Councillors. He made his professional manga debut in 1993, and is best known as the author of Love Hina (1998–2001) and Negima! Magister Negi Magi (2003–2012), both serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine; a sequel to Negima!, UQ Holder!, was serialized from 2013 to 2022. In 2011, Akamatsu founded J-Comi (now Manga Library Z), a free digital distributor of out-of-print manga. Akamatsu has been a managing director of the Japan Cartoonists Association since 2018, and is a vocal advocate for protecting freedom of expression in manga and anime from expansions in censorship and copyright law. In the 2022 Japanese House of Councillors election, he won a seat as a candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party in the national proportional representation block on a free expression platform, becoming the first manga creator in the National Diet. On November 13, 2024, he was appointed Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Reconstruction as part of the Second Ishiba Cabinet. In 1993, Akamatsu won the 50th Shōnen Magazine Newcomer Award for his debut work Hito Natsu no Kids Game, published in Kodansha's Magazine Fresh. The volumes of UQ Holder! became the first to carry a "Doujin Mark" indicating explicit author permission for use as a source for fan-made works, the result of a publishing initiative led by Akamatsu. In 2011, Akamatsu founded J-Comi, a free digital distributor of out-of-print manga.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.