Tokyo elects Yuriko Koike as first female governor

Former Japanese Defence Minister Yuriko Koike on 31 July 2016 was elected as the first woman governor of Tokyo, the capital city of Japan.

Koike garnered more than 2.9 million votes in the election, defeating her opponents, Hiroya Masuda and Shuntaro Torigoe, by a wide margin.

Who is Yuriko Koike?

• Yuriko Koike is a Japanese politician.

• She served as the member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 to 2016 when she resigned to run in the Tokyo gubernatorial election.

• She was elected to the House of Councillors in 1992 as a member of the Japan New Party.

• She was then elected to the House of Representatives in 1993.

• In 1996, she was re-elected to the House of Representatives. She held this seat in the 2000 election as a candidate of the New Conservative Party.

• She joined the Liberal Democratic Party in 2002.

• She served as the Minister of the Environment and Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

• She was appointed Minister of Defence, Japan's first female defence minister, in June 2007 during the first term of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. However, she announced her resignation in August 2007, citing the Aegis classified information leak scandal as a reason.

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