is a Japanese political scientist and politician. She served as Japan's first Minister of State for Gender Equality and Social Affairs from 2005 to 2006, and is currently a member of the House of Councillors representing Chiba Prefecture for the Liberal Democratic Party. Research career She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University in 1982. She also received an M.A. from Yale University in 1977 and a B.A. from Sophia University in 1975. She taught first as Associate Professor, then Professor, in the Faculty of Law at Sophia University, Tokyo, from 1981 to 2002. During this period, she was also a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs under the Fulbright Program. She was selected in 1993 among 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. She was asked by the government to serve on a number of councils, including the Prime Minister's Defence Policy Review Council, the Prime Minister's Administrative Reform Council, and the Prime Minister's Gender Equity Council. She was also a member of the Special Committee on the ITER Project. She served as an executive member of both the Japan Association for International Relations and the Japan Association of Gaming and Simulation, among others. In addition, she has served as a lecturer at civil service training institutions and a commentator on foreign policy and international affairs for newspapers and television. But it is known that her political slant is close to the Social Democratic Party, not to the Liberal Democratic Party, and she strongly opposed strengthening the Japan Self-Defense Forces at the Prime Minister's Administrative Reform Council. Her publications include War and Peace (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1989, in Japanese), which earned her the Yoshino Sakuzo Prize, An Emerging Post-Hegemonic System: Choices for Japan (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1987, in Japanese), Invitation to Political Science (co-authored, Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1989, in Japanese) and academic articles published in various journals. Diplomatic activities She served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, as Head of the Delegation of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland, from April 2002 to April 2004. She also served the challenging post of President to the Conference on Disarmament from 18 August to 31 December 2003, and her efforts during this tenure were highly commended by Member States. She also served as Western Group coordinator at the commencement of the 2004 session of the Conference on Disarmament. In