Shizue Yamaguchi Explained

Office1:Deputy Secretary of State for Economic Planning
Term1:1970–1971
Office2:Member of the House of Representatives
Term2:1946–1947
Constituency2:Tokyo 1st district
Term3:1947–1972
Constituency3:Tokyo 6th district
Term4:1976–1980
Constituency4:Tokyo 6th district
Birth Date:31 October 1917
Birth Place:Tokyo, Japan

Shizue Yamaguchi (Japanese: 山口シヅエ, 31 October 1917 – 3 April 2012) was a Japanese physician and politician. She was one of the first group of women elected to the House of Representatives in 1946.[1]

Biography

Yamaguchi was born in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo in 1917, the eldest daughter of, the owner of and later a politician. She was educated at, after which she joined the family business, becoming a typist and head cook.[2]

After World War II, Yamaguchi joined the Japan Socialist Party. Sponsored by Toyohiko Kagawa,[3] she was a JSP candidate in Tokyo 1st district in the 1946 general elections, the first in which women could vote, and was elected to the House of Representatives.[4] She was re-elected in 1947 and 1949. When the JSP split, she joined the Rightist Socialist Party and was re-elected in 1952, 1953 and 1955. After the JSP re-united, she was re-elected in 1958, 1960, 1963 and 1967. Following the 1967 elections she left the JSP and joined the Liberal Democratic Party. She was subsequently re-elected again in 1969, after which she served as from 1970 to 1971. Although she lost her seat in the 1972 elections (by which time she was the last remaining member of the first intake of female MPs), she was returned to office in the 1976 elections and re-elected in 1979, serving in the House until 1980. She retired from politics after the 1983 elections.

In 1980 Yamaguchi received the United Nations Peace Medal. In 1987 she was made a member of the Order of the Sacred Treasure. She died of renal failure in 2012.

Notes and References

  1. Otsuka Kiyoe (2008) Japanese Women's Legislative and Administrative Reforms in the Postwar Era Bulletin of the Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University
  2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/186904347/ These Women Won Seats in Japanese Parliament
  3. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,792784,00.html JAPAN: Progress Report, Apr. 22, 1946
  4. https://books.google.com/books?id=mP-SvegbcdUC&pg=PA119 Analysis of the 1946 Japanese General Election