Tomiko Okazaki
Tomiko Okazaki ( Japanese 岡 崎 ト ミ 子 , Okazaki Tomiko ; born February 16, 1944 in Fukushima , Fukushima Prefecture ; † March 19, 2017 in Sendai , Miyagi Prefecture ) was a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party . Between 1990 and 2013 she was a member of both chambers of parliament with one interruption, and from 2010 to 2011 she was a minister in the Kan cabinet.
Career
Okazaki worked after graduating from high school in 1962, first as a presenter at Radio Fukushima, later for the radio and television station Tōhoku Hōsō (TBC). In the Shūgiin election in 1990 , she was elected to parliament for the first time as a candidate for the Socialist Party of Japan (SPJ) in the then five-mandate constituency Miyagi 1, which comprised about the southern half of the prefecture, and was re-elected in the Shūgiin election in 1993 . In 1996 she belonged to the founding committee of the DPJ together with Kunio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan and became deputy party chairman after it was founded, but in the election in the same year she lost the new single- seat constituency Miyagi 1 to the former environment and defense minister Kazuo Aichi ( NFP ).
In 1997 she ran successfully for the Sangiin seat of the LDP politician Ichirō Ichikawa , who ran for governor in Miyagi. She was re-elected in the 2001 and 2007 regular Sangiin elections, both times as the candidate with the most votes (with two seats available). From 2004 to 2005 she was again deputy party leader. In 2007 she was presented to the DPJ's shadow cabinet as the “next female environment minister”.
From September 2010 to January 2011, Okazaki was Chair of the National Public Security Commission and Minister of State for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, as well as Minister for Decline in Births and Gender Equality in the Kan cabinet .
In the 2013 Sangiin election , Okazaki received just under 23% of the vote in Miyagi and missed re-election with about 5000 votes behind second place. The two seats went to incumbent Jirō Aichi (LDP; the son of Kazuo Aichi) with 44.7% and new applicant Masamune Wada from Minna no Tō , who received 23.3% of the votes.
Scandals
On a trip to South Korea in 2003, Okazaki spoke to Korean forced prostitutes from World War II (" comfort women ") at a demonstration . In Japan, she was then criticized for having participated in an anti-Japanese demonstration, and was suspended as chairman of the DPJ "mobilization committee" ( 国民 運動 委員長 , kokumin undō iinchō ).
In the 2004 scandal about missed payments into the state pension system, which affected numerous MPs from both major parties and which had also led to the resignation of party chairman Kan and cabinet secretary Yasuo Fukuda (LDP), it became known that Okazaki had not paid contributions for a year and eleven months .
Web links
- Official Website (Japanese)
Individual evidence
- ^ Former national safety chief Okazaki dies at 73. In: The Manichi . March 20, 2017, archived from the original on March 20, 2017 ; accessed on March 20, 2017 (English).
- ↑ ザ ・ 選 挙 : Sangiin election results in Miyagi Prefecture ( Memento of July 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Shadow Cabinet on the DPJ website
- ↑ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0XPQ/is_2003_Feb_24/ai_98002359 DPJ's Okazaki suspended for talking with anti-Japan protesters] (link not available)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Okazaki, Tomiko |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 岡 崎 ト ミ 子 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 16, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Fukushima , Fukushima Prefecture , Japan |
| DATE OF DEATH | 19th March 2017 |
| Place of death | Sendai , Miyagi Prefecture , Japan |