Yuriko Koike

Infobox Defense Minister
honorific-prefix =
name = Yuriko Koike
honorific-suffix =
nationality = Japanese

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imagesize = 200px
small

caption =
order = 2nd
office = Minister of Defense
term_start = July 4, 2007
term_end = August 27, 2007
deputy = Takahide Kimura
primeminister = Shinzo Abe
succeeding =
predecessor = Fumio Kyuma
successor = Masahiko Komura
order2 = 1st
office2 = Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for National Security Issues
term_start2 = September 26, 2006
term_end2 = July 4, 2007
predecessor2 = New post
successor2 = None
order3 = 6th and 7th

office3 = Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs
term_start3 = September 21, 2005
term_end3 = September 26, 2006
successor3 = Sanae Takaichi
term_start4 = September 27, 2004
term_end4 = September 21, 2005
predecessor4 = Toshimitsu Motegi
order5 = 5th, 6th, and 7th

office5 = Minister of the Environment
term_start5 = September 21, 2005
term_end5 = September 26, 2006
deputy5 = Yasuyuki Eda,
Hiroshi Takano [replaced on October 31, 2005]
successor5 = Masatoshi Wakabayashi
term_start6 = November 19, 2003
term_end6 = September 21, 2005
deputy6 = Hiroshi Takano,
Shuichi Kato [replaced on September 27, 2004]
term_start7 = September 22, 2003
term_end7 = November 19, 2003
deputy7 = Shuichi Kato
predecessor7 = Shunichi Suzuki
office8 = Member of the House of Representatives for Tokyo's 10th district
term_start8 = September 11, 2006
term_end8 =
predecessor8 = Koki Kobayashi
successor8 =
majority8 = 109,764 (50.05%)
birth_date = birth date and age|1952|7|15
birth_place = Ashiya, Hyogo, Japan
death_date =
death_place =
party = Liberal Democratic Party (2003-present)
New Conservative Party (2000-2003)
Liberal Party (1997-2000)
New Frontier Party (1994-1997)
Japan New Party (1992-1994)
spouse = Divorced
relations =
children = None
residence = Toshima, Tokyo, Japan
alma_mater = Cairo University
American University in Cairo †
Kwansei Gakuin University ‡
occupation =
profession = News anchor, interpreter
religion =


website = http://www.yuriko.or.jp/
footnotes = †Attended. ‡Withdrawal.nihongo|Yuriko Koike|小池 百合子|Koike Yuriko|extra=born July 15, 1952 is a Japanese politician, who was the Minister of Defense in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but resigned August 27, 2007 after only 54 days in office. [http://www.japannewsreview.com/politics/politics/20070825page_id=1756 Koike decides to leave post, cites responsibility over information leak] - Japan News Review] She is a member of the House of Representatives of Japan for Tokyo's 10th district.

Early life and education

Born and raised in Ashiya, Hyogo, 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."Oyaji no Senaka", "Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition", August 24, 2008] He occasionally told Yuriko his opinion that it was essential for Japan to strengthen relations with Arab countries in order to ensure a stable petroleum supply lest the resource-poor Japan be thrust into war for oil again. His word encouraged her to decide to study in Egypt to master Arabic."Kikase te Anata no Mottainai", "Shūkan Josei", Shufu-to-Seikatsusha, September 12, 2006]

After attending the School of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University in 1971 and the American University in Cairo in 1972, Koike received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Cairo University in 1976. She married a Japanese student in Egypt when she was 21 years old, but divorced soon. [Masaharu Fujiyoshi, "Koike Yuriko Kenkyū", "Shūkan Bunshun", Bungeishunjū, October 20, 2005] ["Koike Yuriko Fūin no Nijūissai", "Flash", vol. 1020, Kobunsha, September 2008]

Career in media

Koike anchored TV Tokyo's "World Business Satellite", the nation-wide TV business news program from 1988 to 1992, after co-hosting Kenichi Takemura's nihongo|"Storytelling on Social Aspects"|世相講談|Sesō kōdan of NTV from 1979 to 1985.

Career in politics

Koike currently belongs to the Liberal Democratic Party after she belonged to the Japan New Party, New Frontier Party, Liberal Party, and New Conservative Party. She has also served one term in the House of Councillors. She is one of the five Vice Secretary Generals of the Diet Members' Committee of nihongo|Japan Conference|日本会議|Nippon Kaigi, the country's largest conservative think tank, once chaired by Taro Aso.

A past participant in the World Economic Forum, Koike has been considered a prime candidate to become Japan's first female prime minister. Koike is a long-time participant in the U.S.-Japan Legislative Exchange Program hosted by George Washington University and run by Professor Henry Nau.

She previously served as the Minister of the Environment and Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs in the Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi, Abe's predecessor. She has been responsible for starting the Cool Biz campaign in Japanese political circles.

Originally representing Hyōgo Prefecture, Koike became one of Koizumi's "assassins" in the 2005 Lower House election, and was critical of LDP members who were defiant of Koizumi's leadership. Her most recent position before becoming Minister of Defense was Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for National Security Issues in the Abe Cabinet.

Koike announced on August 24 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. [ [http://www.japannewsreview.com/politics/politics/20070825page_id=1759 Resigning Koike criticizes opposition] - Japan News Review]

2008 LDP leadership election

On September 8, 2008, Koike 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." [ [http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSL769448120080908 reuters.com, Japan PM contender sees "iron" barrier for women] ]

In the leadership election, held on September 22, Taro Aso won with 351 of the 527 votes; Koike placed third with 46 votes. [ [http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080922dy04.htm "Aso elected LDP head"] , "The Yomiuri Shimbun", 22 September 2008.]

Political positions

Koike supports for 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." [" [http://www.yuriko.or.jp/kihon/kihon.shtml Koike Yuriko Kihon Rinen] ", Koike Yuriko Official Website (in Japanese)]

Having learned ecological lifestyle from her own experience of wartime austerities in Egypt, Koike actively 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 carbon tax in 2005 so that Japan might achieve the goals of the Kyoto Protocol [" [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20051106f1.html Koike pledges to push carbon tax to meet goals under Kyoto Protocol] ", "The Japan Times ", November 6, 2005] , but her idea has not been realized yet. In 2006, she started the "Mottainai Furoshiki" campaign, which urges shoppers to use furoshiki in place of plastic shopping bags. [" [http://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/060403.html Minister Koike created the 'Mottainai Furoshiki'] ", Ministry of the Environment] She is against the use of biofuels made from food crops. ["Mainichi Shimbun Morning Edition", March 11, 2008] Her hope is that Japan will be a society where citizens and companies can make profits by contributing to the protection of the environment, for example through emissions trading. ["Diamond Zai", p. 80, Diamond, September 2007]

As a conservative nationalist, Koike belongs to the Diet members' league to support the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform. [" [http://www.chosunonline.com/article/20060927000035 Uha no Sokkin de Katamerareta Abe Seiken] ", "The Chosun Ilbo", September 27, 2006 (in Japanese)] " [http://www.jcp.or.jp/akahata/aik4/2006-10-06/2006100603_01_0.html 'Yasukuni Shikan' Kataru Menmen] ", "Akahata", October 6, 2006 (in Japanese)] She is also 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, August 15, 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. [" [http://www.mod.go.jp/m/i/kisha/2007/08/07.html Koike Daijin Kaiken Gaiyō] ", August 7, 2007 (in Japanese)] [" [http://www.kinyobi.co.jp/MiscPages/yasukuni_list2007/document_view Yasukuni Sampaisha List 2007] ", Shūkan Kin'yōbi (in Japanese)] She insists on developing an environment to encourage the emperor to visit Yasukuni. [" [http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080915-00000924-san-pol Sōsaisen Yasukuni demo Zessen] ", "Sankei Shimbun", September 15, 2008 (in Japanese)]

Her foreign and security policies are often regarded as hawkish. [" [http://www.news24.jp/87502.html Chūgokushi 'Koike Shin Bōeishō wa Takaha no Seijika'] ", "Nippon News Network", July 4, 2007 (in Japanese)] 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. ["Nippon ga Dekiru Keizai Seisai", "Voice", April 2003] She supports the United States' policy in the war against terrorism and opposes the Japanese government's tradition of U.N.-centered foreign policy. [" [http://www.yuriko.or.jp/column/column2008/col080122.shtml Ozawa Ichirō to Koizumi Junichirō o Kiru] ", "Bungeishunjū", Bungeishunjū, January 2008 (in Japanese)] 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. [ [http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/News/Sp200809150150.html "Dōshūsei Dōnyū ni Iyoku"] , "Chugoku Shimbun", September 15, 2008 (in Japanese)]

Timeline

*1977 - Interpreter and Translator of Arabic, Secretary General of the Japan-Arab Association.
*1978 - Interviewer and Coordinator for the Nippon TV Special "Colonel Qaddafi and Yasser Arafat"
*1979 - News presenter for Nippon TV's Daily Program "Current Issues"
*1988-1989 - News presenter for TV Tokyo's Financial and Business Programs "World Business Satellite" and "Top Business Executives"
*1990 - Secretary General of the Japan-Arab Association.
*1992 - Elected to the House of Councillors from the Japan New Party.
*1993 - Elected to the House of Representatives from Hyōgo Prefecture's Second District, Vice-Minister of the Management and Coordination Agency.
*1994 - Vice-President of the Japan New Party, founding member of the New Frontier Party.
*1995 - Assistant to the Secretary General of the New Frontier Party.
*1996 - Director of the Public Relations Bureau of the New Frontier Party, re-elected to the House of Representatives from Hyōgo Prefecture's Sixth District.
*1997 - Chair of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology of the House of Representatives
*1998 - Founding Member of the Liberal Party, member of the Standing Committee on Trade and Industry of the House of Representatives, Director of the Standing Committee on Finance of the House of Representatives.
*1999 - Member of the Committee on Public Relations of the Liberal Party, State Secretary for the Economic Planning Chair of the Liberal Party.
*2000 - Member of the Standing Committee on Finance and the Standing Committee on Health and Welfare of the House of Representatives, Vice-Chair of the New Conservative Party Policy Planning Committee, and re-elected to the House of Representatives from Hyōgo Prefecture's Sixth District.
*2003 - Minister of the Environment, Minister in Charge of Global Environmental Problems (Second Koizumi Cabinet), re-elected to the House of Representatives, Minister of the Environment and Minister in Charge of Global Environmental Problems (Second Reshuffled First Koizumi Cabinet), and member of the Committee on Economy, Trade and Industry and the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives.
*2004 - Minister of the Environment, Minister in Charge of Global Environmental Problems, and Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs (Reshuffled Second Koizumi Cabinet).
*2005 - Minister of the Environment, Minister in Charge of Global Environmental Problems, and Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs (Third Koizumi Cabinet and reshuffled Third Koizumi Cabinet). Re-elected to the House of Representatives.
*2006 - Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for National Security Affairs (First Abe Cabinet).
*2007 - Minister of Defense (First Abe Cabinet). Left office after only 54 days in office.

References

External links

* [http://www.yuriko.or.jp/profile/profile-e.shtml Koike Yuriko Official Website]
* [http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/koizumidaijin/040927/11koike_e.html Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet - Profile]
* [http://www.japannewsreview.com/politics/politics/20070704page_id=337 Yuriko Koike appointed new Defense Minister]