Haru Koshihara ( ja, 越原はる, 24 January 1885 – 29 January 1959) was a Japanese educator and politician. The founder of

Nagoya Women's University is a private women's university A women's college is an institution of higher education where enrollment is all-female. In the United States, almost all women's colleges are private undergraduate institutions, with many offering coeducational g ...

, she was one of the first group of women elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

in 1946,Otsuka Kiyoe (2008
Japanese Women's Legislative and Administrative Reforms in the Postwar Era
''Bulletin of the Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University''

Biography

Koshihara was born in the village of Oppara in Kamo District of

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

(now part of Higashishirakawa). She graduated from high school in 1899 and joined a sewing course at Gifu Prefecture Normal School Training Centre. Aged 15, she began working at Kashimo No. 3 Elementary School in Ena District. A year later she returned to her parents to help run the family business for the next four years, before returning to teaching. She joined the preparatory school of

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

in 1909 and graduated from its department of Japanese, Chinese and History in 1913. In 1915 she established Nagoya Girls' School with her husband and took over as the school's principal in 1926. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Koshihara contested the 1946 general elections (the first in which women could vote) as a New Civic Party candidate, and was elected to the House of Representatives.Analysis of the 1946 Japanese General Election
United States Department of State, 1946, p54 After being elected, she joined the

National Cooperative Party The was a centrist political party in Japan. History The party was established on 8 March 1947 as a merger of the Cooperative Democratic Party and the National Party following seven months of talks.Haruhiro Fukui (1985) ''Political parties of ...

. She did not run for re-election in the 1947 elections, and in 1948 became principal of Nagoya Jogakuin Junior High School. In 1950 was appointed president of and was awarded a blue

Medals of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. Th ...

in 1958. She died the following year, and was posthumously awarded the

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koshihara, Haru 1885 births Japanese schoolteachers Waseda University alumni 20th-century Japanese women politicians 20th-century Japanese politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) National Cooperative Party politicians Recipients of the Medal of Honor (Japan) Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure 1959 deaths University and college founders Women founders