Doi, Takako (1928—)

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Doi, Takako (1928—)

Japanese political leader who was chair of the Social Democratic Party, 1986–1991. Born Takako Doi in Kobe, a port city in southwest Japan, on November 30, 1928; daughter of a physician; granted law degree from Doshisha University, Kyoto, 1958; never married; no children.

Takako Doi, chair of the Japan Socialist Party from 1986 to 1991, emerged as a national leader in a tradition-bound country where women politicians have been few and far between. In 1989, the high point of her career, she led the Socialists to a stunning victory over the ruling party in the Upper House elections, thus breaking the Liberal Democrats' monopoly on power in that chamber of Parliament. Doi's example, along with her powerful populist message,

inspired hundreds of politically inexperienced housewives and mothers to run for political office in the 1989 balloting and many of them were elected in the wave of "Doi fever" that swept the country. By the time Doi stepped down as chair of the Socialist Party in 1991, she had succeeded in bringing the message of empowerment to the women of her country.

Doi grew up in a household that held an unusually progressive view of women's role in society. After graduating from secondary school, she abandoned her initial plans to become a physician (the profession of her father) and entered law school at Doshisha University. Towering over her peers at 5′7″, Doi was a bold, tenacious student. "She was big, loud and pushy to start with," said one of Doi's law professors in an August 1989 Time magazine article. "I knew from the first day she came into my office that she would make a fine politician."

However, Doi took up teaching instead, holding positions at her alma mater and later at Kansaigakuin University and Seiwa Women's University. She was rerouted into politics in 1969 when her hometown newspaper erroneously reported that she, as a member of the Socialist Party, planned to run for a seat in the Lower House of Parliament. During a visit to the mayor of Kobe made by Doi in an effort to clear up the misunderstanding, the mayor asked her, "Wouldn't it be really stupid to run in an election you know you have no chance of winning?" Outraged by the sexist remark, Doi decided at that moment to run for election. Not only was she successful in capturing a seat in the Lower House in the 1969 balloting, but she was returned to office in seven subsequent parliamentary contests.

Taking her place in the male-dominated Lower House, Doi impressed her colleagues with her forceful debating skills, although her self-assured manner was viewed by some as unfeminine. Even her low-pitched voice came under fire as too mannish. On the basis of her expertise in the substantive issues of foreign affairs, the environment, and constitutional law, she was promoted in 1983 to vice-chair of the party's central executive committee. It was her "common touch," however, that led party barons to support her candidacy for leadership of the Socialist Party in 1986. (Doi remained connected to her constituents by frequenting neighborhood karaoke bars, playing the pinball game called pachinko and avidly supporting the Hanshin Tigers, her home area baseball team.) Running a spirited campaign and dubbed "Madonna for the Socialist Party" (in reference to the American singer, who was embraced by Japanese youth in spite of parental objections), she easily won election to the post, thus becoming the first woman ever to head a major political organization in Japan.

Although initially her position was not taken seriously by her political rivals, Doi enjoyed a surge in the Socialist's approval rating within the first six months of her election. In addition to her successful campaign to bring more women into Japanese politics, she continued her predecessor's attempt to wean the party from its anachronistic fidelity to Marxist-Leninist ideals. She also addressed issues of concern to Japanese citizens by, among other things, denouncing the 3% consumption tax passed by the Liberal Democrats in 1988 and calling attention to the actions of certain high-ranking Liberal Democrats who had accepted stock in the Recruit-Cosmos real estate company, before it went public, in return for political favors. Although her revelations generated little excitement at first, her popularity increased in June 1989, when prime minister Noboru Takeshita, Yasuhiro Nakasone's successor, stepped down because of his involvement in the Recruit-Cosmos scandal. His successor, Sousuke Uno, shamed the country further by refusing to acknowledge allegations made by two geishas that he had accepted sexual favors from them.

As the election for the 1989 Upper House drew near, Doi utilized her position as the recognized medium through which the Japanese people could voice their concern and outrage at the government. She particularly focused on female voters, urging women to finally stand up and be heard. "Japanese women have persevered toward their fathers and their husbands, always walking several steps behind men," she told a gathering of women. "But the time for an end of perseverance has arrived. It is time for the women to stand up and tell the men to follow us." The electorate seemed prepared to support Doi and the party as long as there was no chance of her becoming prime minister. Kii Nakamura , head of the Housewives' Association, told Jim Mulvaney of New York Newsday: "A woman of her age, never married, no children, that would be too strange for Japanese to accept in their candidate.… I think she is still too masculine to be prime minister, but this time, anyway, people will support her."

When the Liberal Democrats retained its majority in the Lower House election of 1990, Doi was blamed for what she herself termed the party's "half victory." In April 1991, after the Japan Socialist Party was defeated in nationwide local elections, she stepped down as party leader but continued to serve out her eighth term in the Lower House. Although Doi downplays her accomplishments as well as comparisons to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher , her contribution to the women's movement in Japan is indisputable.