Junko Tabei

Junko Tabei
Junko Tabei in 1985 at Communism Peak. Photo by Jaan Künnap.
Born	(1939-09-22)22 September 1939 Miharu, Fukushima, Japan
Died	20 October 2016 (aged 77) Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation	Mountaineer
Known for	First woman to summit Mount Everest; first woman to ascend the Seven Summits

Junko Tabei (田部井 淳子, Tabei Junko^?, 22 September 1939 – 20 October 2016) was a Japanese mountaineer. She was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and the first woman to ascend all Seven Summits by climbing the highest peak on every continent.

Tabei was born in Miharu, Fukushima, the fifth daughter in a family of seven children. She was considered a frail, weak child, but nevertheless she began mountain climbing at the age of 10, going on a class climbing trip to Mount Nasu. Although she was interested in doing more climbing, her family didn't have enough money for such an expensive hobby, and Tabei made only a few climbs during her high school years.

From 1958 to 1962, Tabei studied English literature and education at Showa Women's University, where she was a member of the mountain climbing club. After graduating, Tabei formed the Ladies Climbing Club: Japan (LCC) in 1969. The club's slogan was "Let's go on an overseas expedition by ourselves", and was the first of its kind in Japan. Tabei later stated that she founded the club as a result of how she was treated by male mountaineers of the time; some men, for example, refused to climb with her, while others thought she was only interested in climbing as a way to find a husband.

During this time, she climbed mountains such as Mount Fuji in Japan and the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps. By 1972, Tabei was a recognized mountain climber in Japan.

Tabei's LCC contained a team known as the Japanese Women's Everest Expedition (JWEE), headed by Eiko Hisano, that would attempt to summit Mount Everest. JWEE contained 15 members, mostly working women, including teachers, a computer programmer and a juvenile counselor. Two of them, including Tabei, were mothers. After Tabei and Hiroko Hirakawa successfully summited Annapurna III on May 19, 1970, LCC decided to tackle Mount Everest.