Yuriko Koike

Yuriko Koike 小池 百合子
Minister of Defense
In office 4 July 2007 – 27 August 2007
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe
Preceded by	Fumio Kyūma
Succeeded by	Masahiko Kōmura
Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs
In office 27 September 2004 – 26 September 2006
Prime Minister	Junichirō Koizumi
Preceded by	Toshimitsu Motegi
Succeeded by	Sanae Takaichi
Minister of the Environment
In office 22 September 2003 – 26 September 2006
Prime Minister	Junichirō Koizumi
Preceded by	Shunichi Suzuki
Succeeded by	Masatoshi Wakabayashi
Member of the House of Representatives for Tokyo's 10th district
In office 11 September 2005 – 30 August 2009
Preceded by	Kōki Kobayashi
Succeeded by	Takako Ebata
Personal details
Born	(1952-07-15) 15 July 1952 Ashiya, Japan
Political party	Japan New Party (Before 1994) New Frontier Party (1994–1997) Liberal Party (1997–2000) New Conservative Party (2000–2003) Liberal Democratic Party (2003–present)
Alma mater	Kwansei Gakuin University American University in Cairo Cairo University
Website	Official website

Yuriko Koike (小池 百合子, Koike Yuriko, born 15 July 1952) is a Japanese politician and member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 to 2016 (when she resigned to run in the Tokyo gubernatorial election). She was previously the Minister of Defense in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, but resigned in August 2007 after only 54 days in office.

Early life and education

Born and raised in Ashiya, Hyōgo, a wealthy Kobe suburb, Koike went to Kōnan Girls' Junior and Senior High School for her secondary education. Her father, Yūjirō Koike, was a foreign trade merchant who handled oil products. He was also involved in politics, supporting Shintarō Ishihara and the Tatenokai in 1960s, and ran for a national election to no avail in 1969. He occasionally told Yuriko that it was essential for Japan to strengthen relations with Arab countries to ensure a stable petroleum supply lest the resource-poor Japan be thrust into war for oil again. His words convinced her to study in Egypt to master Arabic.

She dropped out the School of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University in September 1971. She studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo in 1972, Koike received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Cairo University in October 1976. She married a Japanese student in Egypt when she was 21 years old, but divorced soon after. She began to work as an interpreter and translator of Arabic and later served as Secretary General of the Japan-Arab Association.

Career in media

In 1978, Koike served as an interviewer and coordinator for the Nippon TV Special "Colonel Qaddafi and Yasser Arafat." She went on to co-host Kenichi Takemura's Storytelling on Social Aspects (世相講談, Sesō kōdan) on NTV from 1979 to 1985, and to anchor TV Tokyo's World Business Satellite, the nationwide TV business news program from 1988 to 1992.

Career in politics

Koike, dubbed "Japan's Condi Rice", shakes hands with Condoleezza Rice in August 2007.

Koike was elected to the House of Councillors in 1992 as a member of the Japan New Party. She was then elected to the House of Representatives in 1993, representing the Hyogo 2nd district. In 1996, she was re-elected to the House of Representatives, this time representing the Hyogo 6th district for the New Frontier Party. She held this seat in the 2000 election as a candidate of the New Conservative Party. She joined the Liberal Democratic Party in 2002.

Cabinet service

She served as the Minister of the Environment and Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Jun'ichirō Koizumi. Along with Satsuki Katayama and Makiko Fujino, Koike became known as one of Koizumi's "assassins" in the 2005 Lower House election, running in Tokyo against an LDP hard-liner candidate who opposed Koizumi's policies.

Koike was appointed Minister of Defense in June 2007 during the first term of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but announced in August 2007 that she intended to resign from the post, citing the Aegis classified information leak scandal as a reason. Koike later hinted that the much publicized fight she had had with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki over a vice-minister replacement was the real reason, as the opposition would use that to oppose a bill on Japan's terrorism laws.

2008 LDP leadership election

On 8 September 2008, she launched her bid to become President of the LDP and became the first woman ever to seek the premiership in Japan's history: "I have received the enthusiastic support of my colleagues. In order to break through the deadlock facing Japanese society, I believe the country might as well have a female candidate. Hillary used the word 'glass ceiling' ... but in Japan, it isn't glass, it's an iron plate. I'm not Mrs Thatcher, but what is needed is a strategy that advances a cause with conviction, clear policies and sympathy with the people." In the leadership election, held on 22 September, Tarō Asō won with 351 of the 527 votes; Koike placed third with 46 votes.

2016 Tokyo gubernatorial election

Following the resignation of Tokyo governor Naoki Inose in December 2013, Koike was widely rumored to be a potential candidate for the gubernatorial election expected to be held in February 2014, along with Hideo Higashikokubaru, Hakubun Shimomura, Seiko Hashimoto and Yoichi Masuzoe. She ultimately did not run in the election, which Masuzoe won.

Masuzoe announced his resignation in June 2016, and Koike announced her intention to run in the election for his successor. Koike stated that she would run "as an LDP lawmaker" but did not obtain the approval of the Tokyo LDP chapter before announcing her candidacy. The LDP officially endorsed Hiroya Masuda, and its Tokyo chapter issued a notice that any members supporting Koike would be punished. Nonetheless, several prominent LDP politicians continued to back Koike, while senior leaders such as Shinzo Abe refrained from making speeches in support of either candidate.

Political positions

Koike supports economic liberalism, promotes administrative and budgetary reform, and insists on further advancement of the status of women in the working world. Her motto is "Check, Challenge, Change, Creative and Communication."

Having learned ecological lifestyle from her own experience of wartime austerities in Egypt, Koike addresses environmental issues. She received the Japan Jewelry Best Dresser Award for her success in the Cool Biz and Warm Biz campaign. She expressed the idea of introducing a carbon tax in 2005 so that Japan might achieve the goals of the Kyoto Protocol.

In 2006, she started the "Mottainai Furoshiki" campaign, which urges shoppers to use furoshiki in place of plastic shopping bags. She is against the use of biofuels made from food crops.

As a conservative nationalist, she belongs to the Diet members' league to support the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform. Koike is one of the five Vice Secretaries General of the Diet Members' Committee of Japan Conference (日本会議, Nippon Kaigi), the country's largest conservative think tank and the main revisionist lobby, once chaired by Tarō Asō.

She is a member of the Diet members' group to promote Yasukuni Shrine visits, led by Yoshinobu Shimamura, and goes to worship the war dead at the shrine on War-End Day, 15 August, almost every year. Not being able to visit it due to an official trip to Okinawa, she sent her proxy to worship at the shrine in 2007.

Her foreign and security policies are often regarded as hawkish. She suggested that the prime minister revise the interpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan to enable the government to exercise the right to collective self-defense.

She has supported the United States and the War on Terror and opposes the Japanese government's tradition of UN-centered foreign policy. During the 2008 LDP leadership election, she pledged to make Russia return the four disputed islands to Japan if she was elected as prime minister.

Koike has also actively promoted Japanese pop culture, appearing in cosplay as Sally from Sally the Witch in 2015, and stating during her 2016 Tokyo gubernatorial campaign that she wanted to turn all of Tokyo into an "anime land."

External links

• Koike Yuriko Official Website
• Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet – Profile
• Yuriko Koike appointed new Defense Minister