is a Japanese essayist and wife of

Naoto Kan is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to serve for m ...

, who was the Prime Minister of Japan from June 2010 September 2011.

Biography

Kan was born Nobuko Himei on October 3, 1945, in

Konkō, Okayama was a town located in Asakuchi District, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 12,382 and a density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. T ...

. Her father and grandfather were doctors and her mother was on the city council. Kan studied at

Tsuda University is a private women's university based at Kodaira, Tokyo. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher educational institutions for women in Japan, contributing to the advancement of women in society for more than a century. History The u ...

, where she met Naoto Kan. She went on to study at

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 ...

so that she could stay in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

with Naoto, and graduated in 1970. They married that winter. However, because they are

first cousins Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

, the engagement was met with parental opposition. Kan campaigned for Naoto while raising their sons, Gentaro and Shinjiro. She would go door to door to talk to people and answer questions for housewives. She also made speeches and has been described by the Irish Times as 'a formidable campaign speaker'. When magazines spread rumors of Naoto having an affair with a television announcer, Kan famously scolded him for letting his guard down, the brushed the incident off. During Naoto's time as the

Prime Minister of Japan The prime minister of Japan (Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its Ministers of Stat ...

, did not want to be called the First Lady, saying that she is simply Naoto's wife. Kan also gained a reputation as a scold when she wrote a book that was surprisingly critical of her husband, talking not only about the occasionally lackluster delivery of his speeches, but also about his inability to cook and lack of fashion sense. Its English title was "What on Earth Will Change in Japan After You Become Prime Minister?". Naoto has called her his toughest critic, and said that he has not read the book. The two regularly debate about politics and have opposing viewpoints on controversial issues like the death penalty. Some of the things that Naoto had done during his career were at Kan's urging, such as publicly apologizing after the government had distributed blood that was contaminated with

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

Selected bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kan, Nobuko 1945 births People from Okayama Prefecture Japanese essayists Living people Spouses of prime ministers of Japan Tsuda University alumni Waseda University alumni