is a Japanese politician who served as Minister-in-charge of Measures against Declining Birthrate from October 2021 to August 2022. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, she previously served as Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications from 2017 to 2018 under Shinzo Abe. Noda also serves in the House of Representatives, serving her fifth term for the 1st District of Gifu Prefecture. She is a self-described conservative and was a candidate in the 2021 Liberal Democratic Party Leadership Election, however she was eliminated in a run-off, placing fourth in the first round. Early life She was born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka. Her grandfather, Uichi Noda (1903–1997) was a Ministry of Finance Vice Minister, and later became an elected member of the lower house serving as Economic Planning Agency Chief Secretary and Minister of Construction. She was born Seiko Shima, but before entering politics she was officially adopted and took her grandfather's name. While enrolled at Futaba Academy (雙葉学園) Secondary School in the Tokyo suburb of Denenchofu. She moved to the United States and attended Jonesville High School in Jonesville, Michigan for one year and graduated. In 1983, she graduated from the Sophia University (上智大学 jōchi daigaku) Foreign Language Department with a major in Comparative cultural studies, and took a job with the Imperial Hotel. Political career In 1987, she campaigned for a Gifu Prefectural Assembly seat and won. With interest she watched the battle occurring at that time over the introduction of sales tax between the LDP and Socialist Party (the Socialist Party doubled their number of seats in the 1989 elections). She was impressed by the sudden popularity of the women's voice of the Socialist Party's Takako Doi, and gained a sense of urgency and self-awareness as a politician, thus deciding to take aim at national issues. In the 39th lower house general elections of 1990, she was unable to gain endorsement from the LDP, and lost in the former Gifu 1st District. In the 40th lower house general elections of 1993, she ran again under the slogan "An LDP lady in the lower house" and won (at the time there were no female LDP lower house members). She was re-elected for the fifth time in the September 2005 snap election. Following the 1993 elections, the Hosokawa Cabinet took leadership and the LDP had slipped to the minority, so she began her lower house career as a member of the