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Takako Doi

Takako Doi
Takako Doi in Tokyo congressist election 2.jpg
Chair of the Japan Socialist Party
In office
1986–1991
Preceded by Masashi Ishibashi
Succeeded by Makoto Tanabe
Chair of the Social Democratic Party
In office
1996–2003
Preceded by Tomiichi Murayama
Succeeded by Mizuho Fukushima
Personal details
Born (1928-11-30)November 30, 1928
Kobe, Hyōgo
Died September 20, 2014(2014-09-20) (aged 85)
Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
Political party Japan Socialist Party, Social Democratic Party

Takako Doi (土井 たか子 Doi Takako?, November 30, 1928 – September 20, 2014) was a prominent Japanese politician from 1980 until her retirement in 2005. She was the first female Lower House Speaker in Japan, the highest position a female politician has ever held in the country's modern history.

Doi was born in Hyōgo Prefecture and graduated from Doshisha University, where she studied law. She was elected to the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Diet, as a member of the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) in 1969, representing the 2nd district of Hyōgo. She spent her first ten years in the House on the sidelines, but came to national attention in 1980 when she was highly critical of Japan's unequal treatment of women, specifically about women-only home economics degrees and the father-dominated family registration law. She pressured the Diet to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985.

Doi became Vice Chair of the JSP in 1984 and the first female leader of a political party division in Japanese history in 1986, as chair of the JSP Central Policy Division. The JSP took a record high number of seats in 1990, when it won 136 seats in the House of Representatives, partly because of Doi's popularity, but she resigned her party post in 1991, in the wake of the Gulf War.

In 1994, no party held a majority in the House and the JSP took the lead in forming a coalition government. The JSP's president, Tomiichi Murayama, became Prime Minister. However, the coalition collapsed in 1996 and, following a disastrous electoral defeat for the JSP later that year, Doi returned to lead the party.


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