[Vision2020] But she couldn't serve on the Logos School Board

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Japan's First Female Defense Minister Assumes Post

July 4, 2007 10:15 p.m. EST


Christopher Rizo - AHN Staff Writer
Tokyo, Japan (AHN)-Japan installed its first female defense minister Wednesday after her predecessor resigned for remarks he made appearing to condone the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. 

Yuriko Koike, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, vowed to strengthen Japan's military alliance with the U.S. and to work to improve conditions for women in the Self-Defense Forces, as the Japanese military is known. 

"The security environment surrounding our nation remains serious, especially after North Korea's ballistic missile launches and its nuclear experiment," the 54-year-old Koike said in her inauguration speech, according to The Daily Times. 

Koike, a former television newscaster, is a Cairo University graduate, is fluent in Arabic and known widely as an expert on the Middle East and Islam. 

She was first elected to parliament in 1992, hopping between small political parties before joining the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 2002. She supported former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision to send troops to Iraq.
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