Born December 9, 1984 in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture, he is 38 years old. He grew up in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. After graduating from Waseda University with a degree in Political Science and Economics, he worked at Fujitsu Limited, where he was involved in building the next system for a megabank. 2013, he moved to France and started his own catering service. 2018, he returned to Japan. He started his own business in Kyoto for inbound business. In 2021, she gave birth to her first son. She suffered from postpartum depression and realized that the postpartum care system in Japan was not sufficient. She is fluent in languages and enjoys watching movies and cooking. Her favorite foods are bread, noodles, chocolate mint, and all kinds of tea. She lives with her husband in their hometown of Nerima Ward, where three generations of parents and children live together.
Media Appearance <>- Appearance in Jyumin Jyushoku (MBS) <>- Interview in Figaro magazine <>- Interview in Nihon Keizai Shimbun <>- Interview in Tokyo Shimbun <>- Interview in ELLE
Social Activities <>- Parite Academy Senior Trainer<>- “Checklist for Choosing Everyone’s Future”<>- Stand by Women Support Member<>- Fiftys Project
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My family consisted of my parents, who were both elementary school teachers, and my brother, who was four years older than me. I remember that I loved to draw and dreamed of becoming a fashion designer in the future. My carefree childhood came to an abrupt end when my parents divorced when I was in the fourth grade. Since then, I have lived with my father, brother, and grandfather.
Although I was still lonely, my life was not lacking without my mother, but I suddenly remembered something after being exposed to the recent news about “menstrual poverty”: when I got my period at the age of 10, I found a black stain in the bathroom and hid it deep in the laundry basket. The person who came to do the housework noticed and contacted my aunt, who was able to get me what I needed, but menstruation comes every month, and for a 10-year-old girl, who does not have enough money at her disposal, to tell my father, “I want to go buy napkins,” was something I was very hesitant to do. I was hesitant to tell my father that I wanted to buy napkins. So I was always stingy with using sanitary napkins, and many times I ended up soiling my clothes. There were many of my classmates who had not yet menstruated, and I had few people around me to talk to about it. I sometimes wonder how much relief I would have felt as a young girl if napkins had been available in the toilets in those days.
It was the time when mixi was just starting to become popular, and I spent my university life doing everything I could to get involved in all kinds of activities, even sparing time to sleep. In the booming economy on the eve of the Lehman Shock in 2008, my fellow students received job offers one after another in the best seller’s market since the bubble economy. I took a long detour, but in the end I was accepted by Fujitsu.
At my company, I was working as an SE on a huge project to build the next system for a megabank. However, because I was so new to the field, my mind and body began to deteriorate, and before I knew it, I was in a constant state of emotional instability, with headaches, stomachaches, nausea, insomnia, and sudden bursts of tears. When I went to a psychosomatic medicine clinic, I was diagnosed as “depressed” and had to take a leave of absence. However, I felt that once I stopped like this, I would never be able to go back to normal, and I felt ashamed of myself for not being a proper member of society, so I could only confide in my husband and my best friend about this.
I believe that I had a surprisingly large number of “curses” on myself at that time. I thought that it was great to have a stable job and work until retirement, that there was no way I could find another job if I was not even satisfied with my current one, and that I would be worthless if I quit a big company. In the end, my mental condition did not recover even after a year and a half of absence, and I quit the company as if I was trying to escape.
However, it was a valuable experience for me to be exposed to the “computer” system in a larger sense, and especially to work on a “mission-critical” system that must never stop. In addition, being exposed to and learning from the behavior of fair and competent supervisors is still a model for me of the kind of leader I should be.
Later, in 2013, the couple moved to France and began working in catering and cooking classes while studying French at a language school. At dinners with multinational friends, I felt comfortable in an environment where international affairs, social issues, and philosophical topics were commonplace and discussed by everyone as equals at the table. I had many experiences that made me think directly about politics, the state, and human rights, such as the terrorist attacks in Paris right after I moved here and the reality of the influx of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan in Germany, where I stayed for a long period of time. It was a stimulating experience.
After returning to Japan, I found an old house and through a chance encounter, I decided to open a cooking school for inbound travelers in Kyoto. Although we did not advertise, we had a lot of visitors from overseas through SNS, which kept us busy. It is really wonderful to introduce each other’s culture and communicate with each other through cooking. It is one of my reasons for living.
It was around this time that I came across the “Parite Academy,” which promotes efforts to increase the number of female Diet members, and I began commuting by overnight bus from Kyoto to a women’s political leadership training course held in Tokyo. After completing the course, I took a position as a trainer to support women who were taking on new challenges, but I soon felt a strong desire to become a Diet member myself and change the political landscape in this country.
My cooking classes in Kyoto, which had been going well, were closed to zero foreign tourists due to the Corona disaster starting in the spring of 2020, and this was one of the reasons I started fertility treatment and had a child. However, I became afraid for my child soon after birth, partly because of a tough delivery that required a transfer to a general hospital after a blood clot was found just before the due date. The psychiatrist diagnosed me with “postpartum depression,” and I resorted to an infant care center. Feeling sorry for my child, I would drop her off for a few days to refresh myself and then try again, and with the support of my husband, my family, and the daycare center, I managed to get through this period. Perhaps it was because it was a time when support from the government was scarce, as evidenced by the fact that motherhood classes were not held in Corona, but as I continued to interact with other mothers on SNS in a small way, I strongly realized that, although we were suffering the same pain, depending on where we lived and our environment, there was little help from the community, family or parents, and no one could help us. There are many pregnant women and mothers who are suffering from the same problems, but have little help from their local community, family, or parents, depending on where they live and their environment. I felt a mixture of anger and resignation, wondering how this voiceless voice could ever be heard in the political arena.
I am keenly aware that Japanese society today is filled with a sense of stagnation. This is because the social system that has been operated mainly by men is reaching its limits, and gender issues lie at the root of many problems. I believe that correcting these problems and increasing the number of women in decision-making positions is what is needed above all else, and I am convinced that this will lead to the creation of a comfortable society not only for women, but also for men who are feeling suffocated.
Nothing will change if we just wait for someone else to do it for us. We want to create a society where children who will live in the future can live as they like and as they are, without being overly constrained by gender or other social attributes. While cherishing the honest feelings of my own heart, I am determined to listen to the voices of each and every person living their daily lives in Nerima Ward, receive and connect the fire in their hearts, and make a big change.