Former Japanese Communist Party Central Committee Secretariat Head. He joined the JCP in 1946 when he worked at the former Japanese National Railways (which was privatized and divided into seven railway companies in 1987). He served as the JCP’s international commission chair, and was elected central committee secretariat head in 1982. He was chosen executive committee vice chair in 1990. For 24 years after he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1972, Kaneko was devoted to leading the JCP in parliamentary struggles as well as in anti-nuclear and peace movements.