Yoshiro mori biography of donald
The female mayor in Tokyo fighting Japan's sexist attitudes
BBC Tokyo correspondent
Satoko Kishimoto finds running one of Tokyo's main districts to be a lonely job.
Back in June, the 48-year-old became the first female mayor in the history of Suginami. The former environmental activist and democracy advocate managed to beat the conservative incumbent by just 200 votes - a shock win for an independent candidate with no experience holding public office.
Since then she has vowed to challenge the country's male-dominated politics. As things stand, she is one of only three female mayors in Tokyo's 23 main districts.
"We have to recognise as a national crisis this under-representation of women in politics," Ms Kishimoto said.
"Women's representation has stayed almost the same for 75 years. This is insane!"
Japan is the world's third largest economy, but it has an abysmal record when it comes to the gender gap index. In the most recent report released by the World Economic Forum in July 2022, Japan ranked 116th out of 146 countries.
It is the worst performing G7 nation when it comes to gender issues. The country has never had a female prime minister, and there are only two women in the current cabinet.
I met Ms Kishimoto for the first time as she cycled into Suginami City Hall building for work - unusual for an average Japanese politician.
She tells me the first few months on the job have been a rough ride.
"As a fairly young woman… [this job] is automatically difficult," she said.
"I'm not from bureaucracy, I'm not a politician. When I speak, people listen. But they're not so easily convinced."
By people, she means the men she works with. In her own district, most of the senior political posts below that of mayor are held by men.
"Issues like climate change, diversity, gender equality have been challenged Having experienced war as a child, she has been involved in the peace movement since her youth. As co-owner of a publishing company, she has been involved in the publication of many educational materials and books related to the return to Japan in order to communicate current issues in Okinawa. Through the Youth Group Council activities, she has communicated the reality of Okinawa to the public and participated in problem-solving activities, serving as vice president of the Okinawa Youth Group Council. She has also held many managerial positions. I experienced war when I was five. Because of that experience, I had a strong desire for peace and actively participated in peace movements since I was a high school student. I was active in the Nakagusuku Village Youth Group Council and served as vice president. In addition, I was involved with the central organization. Various activities started from there, including peace marches. I graduated from a part-time high school, so I've been working since my first year of high school. I was a part-time first-generation student at Futenma High School. I graduated from school while working part-time at various shops. I never missed school, and I attended school from 6:00 p. m. to 10:00 p.m. and got home at 11:00 p. m. After returning home, I did household chores such as laundry. I also worked part-time as a housekeeper. When I was a second-year high school student, my older sister worked as a housekeeper for a military family. I also decided to ask my sister for help to get a part-time job at the base. At that time, if you had a home that hired Okinawans, the US military would issue you a pass. Even now, you need a pass to ent TOKYO — When new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori arrives in Russia today for the first leg of a whirlwind trip to meet world leaders, he’ll be returning to the nation where half his father’s ashes are buried. Shigeki Mori, mayor for decades of a small city in Japan, loved Russia so much he requested that his remains be split between the two countries so the ties he had established would never be forgotten. Given the heavy political suspicions that arose in Japan from associating with Communist Russia, his love of the country was highly unusual, born of a friendship with a fellow World War II veteran--and former enemy. The peaceful ties he forged could give a boost to the younger Mori’s goal of improving relations with Russia and upholding the last wishes of his father, who died in 1989. But the trip comes just a week after the Russians fired on and seized a Japanese fishing vessel. “Since his father’s grave is in Russia, the Russian president-elect [Vladimir V. Putin] will welcome him with a warm heart,” asserted Sotonobu Matsuyama, a close friend of the Mori family and vice chairman of the Japan-Russia Friendship Assn. in Neagari, the Mori family’s roost on the Sea of Japan. “I sense it because Putin is inviting Mori to his hometown of St. Petersburg [rather than Moscow], and I’m sure they will talk about his father.” Not only have Russia and Japan faced off on the battlefield, but throughout the 20th century, each has felt that the other has taken away its rightful territory: They still haven’t officially signed a peace treaty ending World War II, for example, because of a dispute over the southern Kuril Islands not far from where the fishing boat was seized last week. Both have downplayed the boat’s capture, although Russia is still holding the vessel and 20 fishermen on one of the disputed islands. The summit with Putin will be the first in Mori’s week of get-to-know-you sessions with lead Reports indicate Yoshiro Mori will resign as president of the Tokyo Olympic Organising Committee. He should have quit or been forced out within hours of the appalling comments he made about women last week. There are two possible explanations for the delay. The first is that the country’s political leadership does not consider those comments as cause to remove him from that post. The second is that they do not have the power to do so. While neither reflects well on them, we hope the answer is the second, a failure of capacity, rather than the first, a failure of will. Controversy erupted last week when Mori, during an online Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) meeting, said that women in board meetings “take too much time” as a comment upon a Japanese government initiative to increase the number of women on executive boards. “Women have a strong sense of competition,” and “speak so much.”From Youth Group Activities to the Publishing Industry
Brief biography of the witness
Thoughts on peace and youth group activities
From Experiencing War to the Peace Movement
Participating in Youth Group Activities
Recruitment and pressure for spying
Recruitment for Spying
Personal Element to Japan Premier’s Russia Trip
Tokyo Olympics chief Mori's exit has been long overdue