Zenjiro Kaneko (金子 善次郎, Kaneko Zenjirō, born September 24, 1943) is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Yamagata Prefecture and graduate of Hitotsubashi University, he worked at the Ministry of Home Affairs. He was elected for the first time in 2000 as a member of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) but lost his seat three years later after defecting from the DPJ to join the second incarnation of the New Conservative Party.^[1] He was re-elected in 2005 as a representative for the LDP.