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Yuriko Koike

Yuriko Koike
小池 百合子
Yuriko Koike - World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2008.jpg
Governor of Tokyo
Assumed office
2 August 2016
Preceded by Yōichi Masuzoe
Minister of Defense
In office
4 July 2007 – 27 August 2007
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe
Preceded by Fumio Kyūma
Succeeded by Masahiko Kōmura
Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs
In office
27 September 2004 – 26 September 2006
Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi
Preceded by Toshimitsu Motegi
Succeeded by Sanae Takaichi
Minister of the Environment
In office
22 September 2003 – 26 September 2006
Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi
Preceded by Shunichi Suzuki
Succeeded by Masatoshi Wakabayashi
Member of the House of Representatives
for Tokyo's 10th district
In office
11 September 2005 – 30 August 2009
Preceded by Kōki Kobayashi
Succeeded by Takako Ebata
Personal details
Born (1952-07-15) 15 July 1952 (age 64)
Ashiya, Japan
Political party Japan New Party (Before 1994)
New Frontier Party (1994–1997)
Liberal Party (1997–2000)
New Conservative Party (2000–2003)
Liberal Democratic Party (2003–present)
Alma mater Kwansei Gakuin University
American University in Cairo
Cairo University
Website Official website

Yuriko Koike (小池 百合子 Koike Yuriko?, born 15 July 1952) is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the governor of Tokyo. She was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 to 2016 (when she resigned to run in the Tokyo gubernatorial election), and was previously the Minister of Defense in the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, but resigned in August 2007 after only 54 days in office. On 31 July 2016, Koike was elected Governor of Tokyo, the city's first female governor.

Born and raised in Ashiya, Hyōgo, a wealthy Kobe suburb, Koike went to Kōnan Girls' Junior and Senior High School for her secondary education. Her father, Yūjirō Koike, was a foreign trade merchant who handled oil products. He was also involved in politics, supporting Shintarō Ishihara and the Tatenokai in the 1960s, and ran unsuccessfully for national election in 1969. He occasionally told Yuriko that it was essential for Japan to strengthen relations with Arab countries to ensure a stable petroleum supply lest the resource-poor Japan be thrust into war for oil again. His words convinced her to study in Egypt to master Arabic.

She dropped out of Kwansei Gakuin University's School of Sociology in September 1971. The next year, she studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo and received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Cairo University in October 1976. When she was 21, she married a fellow Japanese student but divorced soon after. She began to work as an interpreter and translator of Arabic and later served as Secretary General of the Japan-Arab Association.


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