was a Japanese politician who was a member of the
Japanese Diet
The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...
from 1946–1952. In 1950, she became the first woman in Japanese political history to have a baby while in office.
Biography
Sonoda was born 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 ...
on 23 January 1919.
Tenkoko Sonoda was the widow of Minister for Foreign Affairs
Sunao Sonoda
was Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) who served as minister for foreign affairs and minister of health and welfare. He was called "flying foreign minister" due to his active diplomacy in increasing the role of Japan whe ...
. She was the step-mother to
Hiroyuki Sonoda
was a Japanese politician serving in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the House of Representatives for Kumamoto 4th district; following the 2017 general election when Kumamoto lost one seat due to reapportionment, he moved to the ...
. She was a socialist at first, and belonged to the
Japan Socialist Party
The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...
(the Social Democratic Party Japan; SDPJ) and the Workers and Farmers Party (
Maoism
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...
) in the Diet, but changed her opinion by herself to be conservative after her marriage to Sunao.
She was a member of the representative committee of the openly
revisionist lobby
, to which her son-in-law Hiroyuki is also affiliated.
[Nippon Kaigi website]
Sonoda died on 29 January 2015 at the age of 96.
References
Sources
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0XPQ/is_2000_April_17/ai_61968766
1919 births
2015 deaths
People from Tokyo
Spouses of Japanese politicians
Female members of the House of Representatives (Japan)
Members of Nippon Kaigi
Members of the House of Representatives (Japan)
Members of the House of Representatives (Empire of Japan)
Social Democratic Party (Japan) politicians
20th-century Japanese women politicians
Tenkoko
{{Japan-politician-stub