[4] Instead, he joined Mitsui & Co., rather than pursuing a career in one of the government ministries, which was the typical path for someone of his political and educational background.

However, a brief posting to Nicaragua to renew tobacco contracts exposed him to the effects of the ongoing civil war, which made him realise the importance of a stable government.

[4] He also had several overseas postings, one of which was in North Carolina, United States, a major source of tobacco for Mitsui at the time.

[11] In the Second Abe Cabinet, which was formed on 26 December 2012, Hayashi was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

When his successor Koya Nishikawa had to resign from his office following a scandal, Hayashi was asked to return to the ministry and served again as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from 23 February 2015 to 7 October 2015.

With a shrinking domestic market, many of the agricultural policies under his leadership focused on making the industry more export-oriented.

[15] He was appointed Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on 3 August 2017 in a reshuffle of the Third Abe Cabinet.

[16] Hayashi held a press conference on 15 July 2021 and announced his intention to stand as a candidate in the 2021 general election, which meant switching to the Lower House.

[18] He faced opposition from the then-serving MP for Yamaguchi 3rd constituency, Takeo Kawamura, who was initially expected to remain the official LDP candidate with the backing of his faction leader, Toshihiro Nikai.

On 29 September, Fumio Kishida, who also belongs to the Kōchikai faction and shares similar political views with Hayashi, won the 2021 LDP presidential election and became prime minister.

Following this, the LDP’s Yamaguchi Local Committee asked to make Hayashi the official candidate, and after being persuaded by Akira Amari, who showed him secret survey results indicating Hayashi was more than twice as popular as Kawamura in the constituency, Kawamura decided not to stand in the election.