Yuriko Koike

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Yuriko Koike
小池 百合子
Official portrait, c. 2017
Governor of Tokyo
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 August 2016
Deputy	Mitsuchika Tarao Hiroshi Kajihara Kei Takechi Manabu Miyasaka
Preceded by	Yōichi Masuzoe
Minister of Defense
In office 4 July 2007 – 27 August 2007
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe
Preceded by	Fumio Kyūma
Succeeded by	Masahiko Kōmura
Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs
In office 27 September 2004 – 26 September 2006
Prime Minister	Junichirō Koizumi
Preceded by	Toshimitsu Motegi
Succeeded by	Sanae Takaichi
Minister of the Environment
In office 22 September 2003 – 26 September 2006
Prime Minister	Junichirō Koizumi
Preceded by	Shunichi Suzuki
Succeeded by	Masatoshi Wakabayashi
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 19 July 1993 – 14 July 2016
Constituency	Hyōgo 2nd district (1993–1996) Hyōgo 6th district (1996–2003) Kinki (2003–2005) Tokyo 10th district (2005–2009) Tokyo (2009–2012) Tokyo 10th district (2012–2016)
Member of the House of Councillors
In office 26 July 1992 – 4 July 1993
Constituency	Proportional district
Personal details
Born	(1952-07-15) 15 July 1952 (age 71) Ashiya, Hyōgo, Japan
Political party	Independent (2018–present)
Other political affiliations	JNP (1992–1994) NFP (1994–1997) LP (1997–2000) NCP (2000–2003) LDP (2003–2017) TFnK (2017) PoH (2017–2018)
Alma mater	Kwansei Gakuin University American University in Cairo Cairo University
Website	Official website

Yuriko Koike (小池 百合子, Koike Yuriko, born 15 July 1952) is a Japanese politician, who has served as the Governor of Tokyo since 2016. She graduated from Cairo University in 1976 and was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 until 2016, when she resigned to run for Governor of Tokyo. She also previously served as Minister of the Environment in the Junichiro Koizumi cabinet from 2003 to 2006 and briefly as Minister of Defense in the first cabinet of Shinzō Abe in 2007.^[1] Koike was elected Governor of Tokyo in 2016, becoming the metropolis's first female Governor.^[2] Koike was re-elected Governor in 2020, winning 59.7% of the vote.^[3]

Considered one of the most high-profile and well-known Japanese politicians,^[4] Koike has been frequently mentioned as holding Prime Ministerial ambitions.^[5] She ran in the 2008 Liberal Democratic Party leadership election, becoming the first woman to run for the leadership of a major Japanese political party, however she came in third place losing to Tarō Asō. In 2017 she left the LDP amid much media attention and launched two parties: the national party Kibō no Tō and the regional party Tomin First no Kai. Kibō no Tō contested the 2017 general election with Koike as leader, however the party underperformed expectations and mostly disappeared after merging with the Democratic Party for the People in 2018. The same year Koike stepped down as leader of Tomin First and officially became independent, however she has still endorsed and campaigned for Tomin First candidates in Tokyo and the party still makes frequent use of her image and policies.

Koike has come under some scrutiny from Japanese liberals and Koreans in both Japan and the Koreas for her refusal to acknowledge the occurrence of 1923 Kantō Massacre, which mainly targeted ethnic Koreans, as well as her association with groups that are often labeled anti-Korean.^[6]