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376 Masako Ohkawara: Upper House Lawmaker1 In 2007, the elections in the Upper House of Japan’s National Diet, or legislature (House of Councillors), resulted in serious losses for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), accompanied by impressive gains for the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Thus, the election shifted the balance of power significantly, since actions taken by the LDP-dominated Lower House (House of Representatives) could be voted down in the Upper House, where the LDP lacked a majority, a phenomenon that became known as “the twisted Diet,” in which different political parties controlled each House. The conduct of the Diet was thus significantly changed, with increased importance accorded to the Upper House. In every election, what happens in Tokyo, the capital, draws national attention. The DPJ, seeking a political turnaround, decided to increase the number of its candidates running for the Upper House from the Tokyo electoral district—where the number of seats apportioned had been increased from four to five. Thus, in addition to the party’s male incumbents, it put forward a new candidate—Masako Ohkawara, a fifty-four-year-old mother of three. Ohkawara, sporting an official campaign color of naturally-dyed olivegreen , and speaking powerfully on behalf of consumers’ rights, earned a stunning victory of 1,087,743 votes in this election—more than the other fourcandidates.Sheexceededherownpersonalexpectationsaswellasthose of her supporters. Considering that she had no particular existing claim to fame, and that she ran as a self-titled obasan (a middle-aged woman), this represented an amazing achievement. In Ohkawara’s own words, prior to first entering politics in 1993, she had “been just an ordinary mother.” While her words convey an image worlds away from politics, in fact, the experience of motherhood served first to Yoko Kunihiro Translated by Kimberly Hughes Profiles of two Politicians 25 377 draw her into politics. And while she came to the Diet completely new to national politics, her experience of serving three terms in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, helped earn her a seat on the Committee on Health, Welfare and Labor which she had coveted. Rearing Children and Working for a Co-op Ohkawara’s social activism flowed from her life as a student and then as a mother. She grew up in Yokohama, first studying at Ferris Seminary, an all-girls’ school founded in 1870 by Christian missionaries, and then going on to attend International Christian University. As a first-year student, she became interested in environmental issues after reading such works as the classic Silent Spring, as well as Sawako Ariyoshi’s bestselling Fukugo osen (Multiple pollution) on Japan’s environmental problems. She was the kind of student whose sense of justice prompted her to action. She joined demonstrations , for example, against a proposed increase in university fees, explaining that “This was the first instance in Japan of an attempt to establish a system whereby tuition and fees would be automatically adjusted to changes in the cost-of-living. I joined the movement against it out of my youthful sense of justice that in the long run the system would work to the students’ disadvantage.” The fervor of the sixties’ student movement was beginning to fade during Ohkawara’s university days in the early 1970s. Finishing all coursework except for her final thesis, she chose to put off graduation in order to spend a semester studying in the United States. At an English-language school on the West Coast, she met students of various ethnicities. Some were Mexican , Taiwanese, Irish, and she was aware of meeting people with value systems different from her own. She began to value being open to new ideas. After graduating in 1977, Ohkawara worked in film and stage production , first serving as an assistant to a film producer. She married a fellow student who had also studied abroad and had had experiences like hers. Her husband worked for a research institute after finishing graduate school, and the family moved into housing run by his company. Following the birth of their first child, Ohkawara quit her job. Most of the families living in the company’s housing were members of the consumer cooperative organization (co-op) known as the Seikatsu Club, and Ohkawara decided to join as well after her neighbors recommended the quality of its food. As a result of this experience, she became closely interested in food safety and environmental health. As she explains, “It’s hard to get out and go shopping when you have small...

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