Hiroko Uehara (上原 公子, Uehara Hiroko) is a Japanese centre-left politician and policy consultant. From 1999 to 2007, she served for two terms as mayor of Kunitachi City, becoming the first female mayor in Tokyo.[1]

Uehara was born in 1949 in Miyazaki City, Miyazaki Prefecture. After attending Miyazaki prefectural Miyazaki-Ōmiya High School (Miyazaki kenritsu Miyazaki Ōmiya kōtō-gakkō), she graduated from the Faculty of Letters of Hōsei University, but subsequently broke off her postgraduate studies. Later, she became the leader of the female consumer-driven local party Tokyo Seikatsusha Network, part of the national citizens' network movement (also known as "representative/deputy/proxy movement", 代理人運動, dairinin undō), and was elected to the assembly of Kunitachi City. In 1999, Uehara won the mayoral election, ending a two-decade streak of conservative/centre-right mayors. After two terms, she did not stand for re-election (the network movement has rules on assembly member rotation and chief executive term limits). With centre-left support including hers, Hiroshi Sekiguchi was elected to succeed her.

In the 2007 regular election, she tried to win a seat in the House of Councillors via the Social Democratic Party list in the proportional district; but she received only 108,636 votes nationwide, making her fourth on the SDP list while the party won only two seats in the proportional election.[2] In the 2016 Tokyo gubernatorial election, Uehara ran a support group for centre-left candidate Shuntarō Torigoe.

References

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  1. ^ Kantō bengoshikai rengōkai (関東弁護士会連合会, Kan-ben-ren for short)/Kanto Federation of Bar Associations: transcript of a 2005 interview with Uehara in the series Kan-ben-ren ga yuku (「関弁連がゆく」), retrieved March 9, 2022.
  2. ^ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 第21回参議院議員通常選挙結果調 ("Results of the 21st regular elections of members of the House of Councillors"), p. 36 of 78 (pdf), retrieved March 8, 2021.
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