Mizuho Fukushima

Mizuho Fukushima (2010)

Mizuho Fukushima ( Japanese 福島 瑞 穂 , Fukushima Mizuho ; born December 24, 1955 in Miyazaki Prefecture ) is a Japanese politician and member of the upper house for the Social Democratic Party (SDP). She was party leader from 2003 to 2013 and has held this office again since 2020. From September 2009 to May 2010 she was Minister in the Hatoyama Cabinet .

Life

Fukushima graduated from the Tokyo University Faculty of Law in 1980 . In 1987 she was registered as a lawyer in Tokyo. Among other things, through appearances on television, she became known as an advocate of feminism and human rights .

In 1998 she was elected to the House of Lords as the top candidate of the SDP on the proportional representation list. In the 2004 election she received over half a million of the newly introduced person votes and thus by far the most among the SDP proportional representation candidates: She was sure to be re-elected for another six years. In 2010 she led the SDP list again with 381,554 votes and was re-elected for a third term.

In 2001 Fukushima became SDP general secretary under Chair Takako Doi . After Doi's resignation in 2003, she was elected party leader by the SDP MPs. She was last re-elected for a third two-year term in 2007 with no opponents.

Fukushima has published over twenty books, most of them on family and marriage, domestic violence and sexual harassment, and several constitutional books in recent years . She also teaches as a visiting professor at Gakushūin Women's University.

After the Shūgiin election in 2009 , Fukushima led the coalition negotiations with the Democratic Party and the New People's Party and subsequently became a member of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's cabinet as Minister for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, as well as for Decline in Births and Equality . She was released on May 28, 2010 because of opposition from the Social Democrats to the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa.

After the SDP's poor performance in the 2012 and 2013 parliamentary elections , Fukushima resigned as party leader in July 2013. She returned in February 2020 after party chairman Seiji Mataichi declared that she was not available for re-election due to reasons of age.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Reiji Yoshida: SDP hands Fukushima huge task as new leader. In: The Japan Times . November 16, 2003, accessed April 17, 2009 . 
3. ↑ The Daily Yomiuri , May 28, 2010: PM sacks Fukushima ( Memento of the original from May 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Reiji Yoshida: SDP's Fukushima resigns over dual election losses. In: The Japan Times . July 25, 2013, accessed September 1, 2013 . 
5. ↑ 社民党 首 に 福島 氏 再 登 板 党 大会 、 合流 反 対 論 相 次 ぐ . In: Nihon Keizai Shimbun . February 22, 2020, accessed February 23, 2020 (Japanese). 

Web links

• Official Website (Japanese)
• Mizuho Fukushima in the Internet Movie Database (English)