[1] Shibata earned his bachelor's degree in 1984 from Waseda University's School of Social Sciences.
He continued at Waseda, earning his master's from the Graduate School of Political Science in 1987.
[1] Starting in 1988, Shibata served as secretary to former PM Mori Yoshiro.
[2] In 1999, he was elected to the Toyama Prefectural Assembly and served for three consecutive terms as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
[2] In 2010, he was first elected to the House of Councillors as a member of Nippon Ishin no Kai.