Yōko Kamikawa

Yōko Kamikawa (上川 陽子), is a Japanese politician and former think tank researcher who has served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs since September 2023. She served as the Minister of Justice from September 2020 to October 2021, and also served as Minister of State for Gender Equality and Social Affairs in the cabinets of Shinzō Abe and Yasuo Fukuda. She has been a member of the House of Representatives since December 2012.

Early life and education
Born in the city of Shizuoka in Shizuoka Prefecture, she graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1977. After her graduation in March, she worked as a researcher from Mitsubishi Research Institute from April. In 1988 she received a master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University In addition, she worked as a fellow under US Senator Max Baucus.

House of Representatives
She was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in June 2000. She has been re-elected at every election until 2009. She was elected again in 2012. She has represented the Shizuoka 1st district between 2000 and 2003, 2005 to 2009 and again since 2012. She also represented the Tōkai proportional representation block between 2003 and 2005.

Minister of Justice
During her time as Minister of Justice, Kamikawa ordered 16 executions where 13 of those executed being former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, whose acts of domestic terrorism included the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack.

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Following a cabinet reshuffle on 13 September 2023, she was appointed minister of foreign affairs.

She made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine in January 2024, where she expressed Japan's support for Ukraine and the Japanese government's willingness of strengthening aid and bilateral ties with the country. She also signalled that the Japanese government would be willing to co-lead Ukraine's proposed peace agreement on radiation and nuclear else safety. In addition, Kamikawa has made other recent trips abroad. Early February 2024, she visied Samoa and Fiji to attend the 5th Ministerial Interim Meeting of the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM). During the meeting, participants shared views on policy developments and changing international situations. In Late February, Kamikawa attended the G20 Foreign Minister's Meeting in Brazil, to discuss current global affairs.

March 2024, Kamikawa visited New York, United States of America. During her visit, her job was to chair the Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on "Nuclear Disarmarment and Non-Proliferation." She also attended other meetings.

Gender Equality
Kamikawa has highlighted the importance of women's perspectives in making the society better. During her interview, she has explained her view through her belief on diversity. She thinks that in a diverse society, the society is able to consider a range of perspectives and become aware of aspects that may have been previously overlooked. On this note, she adds that it is essential for society as a whole to actively incorporate women's perspectives that may have been overlooked in the past and to embrace change."As the WPL ambassador in Japan, I pledge that I will take these themes into political discussions and do my best to bear substantial outcome, in addition to attaining the numerical goals."The above quote is based on the Women Political Leaders (WPL) Summit held in Tokyo in 2019. During this time, she highlighted the importance of health and decent work, release from poverty and violence for women.

In May 2024, Kamikawa was accused of equating women's worth with childbirth after asking "how can we women call ourselves women without birthing this person" during a rally for the Shizuoka Prefecture gubernatorial election. However, there has been a debate about whether to interpret the verb 'umu (うむ)' as 'give birth to (産む)' or 'produce (生む)', and the initial Kyodo News report has been criticised for being taken out of context. She subsequently retracted her remarks, saying that she had meant to ask female voters to exercise their power to elect the LDP candidate just as she was "born" as a House of Representatives member in the 2000 election.