is a Japanese

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. She is the daughter of former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Kakuei Tanaka was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. Known for his background in construction and earthy and tenacious political style, Tanaka is the only modern Japanese prime minister who ...

and his official wife Hana.

Early life

Tanaka attended high school at Germantown Friends School in the United States and graduated from

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

. She spent most of her early adulthood working with her father's

political machine In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership c ...

Etsuzankai, and was first lady to her father since her mother, Hana, was absent due to long-standing illness. She was elected to the

Lower House A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

in 1993, shortly after her father's death. Makiko Tanaka Ehime Maru

Career

Tanaka was the first female foreign minister of Japan, from April 2001 to January 2002, but was fired from the cabinet after making remarks critical of Prime Minister

Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi ( ; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a Japanese retired politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ...

. Koizumi had also made indirect negative remarks toward Tanaka shortly before her removal as Foreign Minister. Later that year, she was expelled from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and barred from party membership for two years. In August 2002, Tanaka resigned from the Diet after allegations that she had embezzled her secretaries'

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

salaries. A Tokyo court cleared her in September, and she ran for the Diet again as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

in November 2003. Her husband Naoki Suzuki, whom she married in 1969 was adopted as an adult into her family, because she has no brothers to carry on the family name. In August 2009, Tanaka and her husband joined the opposition

Democratic Party of Japan The was a Centrism, centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to Centre-left politics, centre-left, Liberalism, liberal or Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Japan, ...

. In September 2009 she became the Diet chairperson of the Committee on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In September 2011 she became the Diet chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. On October 1, 2012, she became Minister of Education, Culture, Science, Sports, and Technology, as part of a reshuffle of the Yoshihiko Noda Cabinet. On November 2, 2012 she denied applications for three new universities, contradicting a report the previous day that had endorsed the establishment of the universities. It had been 30 years since a minister had contradicted the ministry in such a way. This sparked a large amount of criticism and after pressure from within the DPJ she reversed her decision and approved the applications. She lost her seat in the December 16, 2012

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

br>Nothing left for the election-gutted DPJ to do but rebuild December 18, 2012
/ref> She left office on 26 December 2012.

Publications

* (with English abstract) Tanaka, Makiko.
The English Language Development Program of the Los Angeles Unified School District : Implications for Elementary School English Education in Japan
" (カリフォルニア州ロサンゼルス統一学区における英語教育の試みと日本における小学校英語教育への示唆
Archive
'' The Journal of Kanda University of International Studies'' (神田外語大学紀要). Kanda University of International Studies. 2009, Volume 21.
Info pageArchive
at

CiNii CiNii () is a bibliographic database service for material in Japanese academic libraries, especially focusing on Japanese works and English works published in Japan. An early trial version of the database was a component of its predecessor calle ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Makiko 1944 births Living people Politicians from Niigata Prefecture Waseda University alumni Children of prime ministers of Japan Spouses of Japanese politicians Women members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Women government ministers of Japan Female foreign ministers Ministers for foreign affairs of Japan Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Democratic Party of Japan politicians 21st-century Japanese women politicians Japanese women diplomats Japanese diplomats Germantown Friends School alumni Education ministers of Japan Culture ministers of Japan Science ministers of Japan Sports ministers of Japan Technology ministers of Japan People from Bunkyō Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2003–2005 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2005–2009 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2009–2012