Toshiko Takeya (竹谷とし子, ''Takeya Toshiko'', married name 菊地とし子, ''Kikuchi Toshiko''; born September 30, 1969) is Japanese Senator from

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 ...

and a member of

Kōmeitō , formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a conservative political party in Japan founded by lay members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalitio ...

("Justice Party"). She received the second highest vote share (13.2%) in the 2010 Japanese Senate election in Tokyo and succeeded

Yūji Sawa is a Japanese politician of the New Komeito Party, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Osaka, Osaka and graduate of Keio University, he was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time ...

as Kōmeitō Senator from Tokyo who retired after one term. A native of Shibetsu town,

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, Takeya graduated from Sōka High School in Kodaira city, Tokyo and from

Sōka University , abbreviated typically as or , is a private university in Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan. In 2014, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) designated Soka University as one of Japan's Top Global Universitie ...

's Faculty of Economics in 1992. During her university studies, she passed the examination as Certified Public Accountant (''kōnin kaikeishi'') in 1991. After graduation, she began to work for Tōmatsu "LLC" (''kansa hōjin'', a business type for

external auditors An external auditor performs an audit, in accordance with specific laws or rules, of the financial statements of a company, government entity, other legal entity, or organization, and is independent of the entity being audited. Users of these enti ...

, regulated by Japanese CPA legislation). In 1996, she transferred to Tōmatsu spin-off ABeam Consulting "Ltd." ( K.K.). Her work at ABeam included development projects in Indonesia and Vietnam. As Yūji Sawa announced his retirement in order to not reach Kōmeitō's age limit of 66 while in office, Takeya decided to enter national politics in December 2009. Tokyo elects five Senators per election since 2007; in the 2010 election, popular Democratic administrative reform minister

Renhō Murata , commonly known by her given name, , is a Japanese politician and former journalist who is a current member of House of Councillors. She was the leader of the now-defunct major Japanese opposition party, the Democratic Party. Early and persona ...

garnered over 1.7 million votes, more than twice that of any other candidate. Takeya received 806,862 votes, about 20,000 less than Sawa six years before, but enough for second place as top elected Murata took more than a quarter of the Tokyo vote – Sawa had ranked fourth behind the major party candidates in 2004 –, and above Kōmeitō's target of 800,000 votes.''The Japan Times'', July 6, 2010
Decision 2010: Campaigning in Tokyo heats up. Parties pull out all the stops as 24 candidates vie for five seats.
/ref> As of 2012, she is a member in the Committees on Financial Affairs (''zaisei kin'yū''), Oversight of Administration (''gyōsei kansa'') and the Special Committee on Official Development Assistance and Related Matters (''seifu kaihatsu enjo nado ni kan suru tokubetsu-iinkai'').

References

on Toshiko Takeya'
official website
* Senate biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Takeya, Toshiko Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) New Komeito politicians Living people 1969 births