Yūko Nakagawa
中川郁子
Member of the House of Representatives
Assumed office
5 November 2021
ConstituencyHokkaido PR
In office
17 December 2012 – 28 September 2017
Preceded byTomohiro Ishikawa
Succeeded byKaori Ishikawa
ConstituencyHokkaido-11th
Personal details
Born (1958-12-22) 22 December 1958
Niigata Prefecture
NationalityJapanese
Political partyLiberal Democratic Party
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1982; died 2009)​
Alma materUniversity of the Sacred Heart

Yūko Nakagawa (中川郁子, Nakagawa Yūko, née Iwata, born 22 December 1958) is a Japanese politician in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). She represented Hokkaido in the House of Representatives from 2012 to 2017. Her husband, Shōichi Nakagawa, was also a politician, serving as Minister of Finance of Japan in 2008 and 2009. Nakagawa was born in Niigata Prefecture and graduated from University of the Sacred Heart in 1981. She worked at Mitsubishi for a year until her marriage to Shōichi, and moved to Hokkaido shortly afterward.[1]

After Shōichi's death in 2009, Yūko began to get involved in politics. In the 2012 election, she ran in Hokkaido's 11th district against Tomohiro Ishikawa, who had defeated her husband for the position in the last election; she won with 51 percent of the vote.[2] During her time in the House, she served on the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Committee, and was appointed as parliamentary minister of the committee in 2014.[3] In her role as minister, she spoke out in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.[4]

After being re-elected in the 2014 election, Nakagawa came under controversy in March 2015, when a photograph was released where she was kissing fellow politician Hirofumi Kado; Nakagawa later apologized for the incident, and LDP President Shinzo Abe offered his continued support after the leak.[5] She was challenged by Kaori Ishikawa, Tomohiro's wife, in the 2017 election. She lost, 54.5 to 45.5 percent, and the kiss with Kado was considered by the media to be the primary reason why she was defeated.[6]

She narrowly regained a seat in the 2021 Japanese general election.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "中川郁子農水政務官が夫を語る". Sankei Shimbun. 3 October 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2017. (in Japanese)
  2. ↑ "自民・中川郁子氏が初当選…故・昭一氏の妻". Yomiuri Shimbun. 16 December 2012. Retrieved 11 November 2017. (in Japanese)
  3. ↑ "Nakagawa Yuko". Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. 2013. Archived from the original on 16 May 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  4. ↑ "ＴＰＰへの不安払う 農水政務官退任 中川郁子氏". Tokachi Mainichi Shimbun. 11 October 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2017. (in Japanese)
  5. ↑ "=中川郁子農水政務官「路上キス」の代償". Sankei Shimbun. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2017. (in Japanese)
  6. ↑ "妻同士の戦いに敗北 自民中川郁子氏、不祥事響く". Sankei Shimbun. 23 October 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2017. (in Japanese)
  7. ↑ "夫からの「因縁」の一騎打ち、中川郁子氏は比例復活　早朝に当選の報". Asahi Shimbun. 1 November 2021. Retrieved 15 December 2021. (in Japanese)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.