, also published as Shidzue Ishimoto, was a 20th-century Japanese feminist and one of the first women elected to the Diet of Japan, best known as a pioneer in the birth control movement. Early life Shidzue Katō was born on March 2, 1897 in Japan to a wealthy ex-samurai family. Her father, was a successful engineer who received his education and training at the Tokyo Imperial University. Her mother, Tsurumi Toshiko, came from a notable and highly educated family. Hirota travelled frequently to the West for work, and because of this Katō and her family grew up familiar with Western things At age 17, Katō was married to Baron Keikichi Ishimoto (石本恵吉), a Christian humanist interested in social reforms. He was the son of Ishimoto Shinroku. Move to United States Shortly after their marriage, Katō (then Ishimoto) and her husband moved to the Miike coalfield in Kyūshū. For three years, they witnessed the horrendous conditions under which the men and women there worked. This experience resulted in Katō and her husband suffering from a breakdown of health, which prompted the couple to move to the United States in 1919. In the United States, Baron Ishimoto began to veer from Christian humanism toward a more radical Communist position. Katō began to live a more independent life as her husband went off to Washington D.C. to act as a consultant and interpreter for the Japanese delegation to a conference of the International Labor Organization. During this time, Katō lived in a tenement apartment and enrolled in secretarial and English courses. It was during this time that Katō began to socialize with the socialist acquaintances of her husband, which eventually led her to meet Margaret Sanger. It was this meeting with Sanger that inspired Katō's decision to form a birth control movement on her return to Japan. Return to Japan and activism On her return to Japan in 1921, Katō continued to strive for economic independence, and began her mission to propagate birth control education. She got a job as a private secretary for the Y.W.C.A, which primarily consisted of introducing Western visitors of Japanese culture and people. She also opened a yarn shop called the Minerva Yarn Store, where she sold imported wool products. During this time Katō published many writings in support of easier access to birth control for women. She argued that Japan's growing population problem could be solved by