I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the organizers of this meeting, Nishimachi International School, and Mrs. Junko Thomas. I am grateful for your allowing me to speak on the subject of "politics", sparing your most precious time on the last day of the school before the summer holiday starts.

When Junko, my old friend asked me to talk on the subject of politics, I felt pleasantly surprised because there has ever been no Japanese school asking me to give a talk on any subjects, not to mention on politics. This is, perhaps, not so much prejudice against me, or against my belief, but it seems the Japanese schools feel safer not to come near any particular politicians. They want to stay neutral.

Personally I feel it is a great pity that the students do not have an opportunity to hear some of the experiences of politicians or, as a matter of fact, any other professionals who help make our society work, whether it is a bureaucrat, journalist, businessman, scholar, you name it. Thus, students miss the chance to understand the working of a society, even a glimpse of it.

Besides, I firmly believe that politics is very important, essential to the healthy existence of a society. A society is composed of many different individuals, male and female, adults, children, elderly people, blue color workers and white color workers, city dwellers and farmers, and people of different kinds of professions, such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, merchants, etc

All these people have needs for their daily living. Some are basic, such as shelters or home, food and clothes: they need schools for their children, doctors to take care of sick people: people would want such conveniences as buses, trains and airplanes: villages and towns need police and fire-fighters for their safety: manufacturers, distributors and retail stores for the daily needs: people need jobs to earn money, banks to safe keep their extra money, mail services, telephones and telegraphs. As the civilization gets more advanced, the needs become more proliferated, and so are the services. Now we have personal computers, access to Internet, telephone shopping, investment banks in an international scale, etc. Mass media have become such a mega-industry, and many people spend hours watching the TV screens.

So a society or a country has to provide people with all these basic needs as well as not-so-basic needs, and politics together with administration covers all these areas by setting up rules and regulations so that people's various needs can be properly met without interfering with one another.

This is why politics is basically very important. If politics does not run well or gets corrupt, serving only a certain group, people's dissatisfaction mounts and they demand new rulers or new systems.

According to the Greek philosopher, Plato, there are three types of political systems, that is, autocracy, oligarchy and democracy. Since the beginning of human civilization until recent history, most political forms were, one way or another, autocracy, where kings or emperors had the supreme power and people were governed without their voices being heard. Some were good kings, but as it has been always the case, the power always corrupts unless it is properly checked.

The modern history has been the history of struggle of people toward freedom and democracy. Now many advanced countries have democratic governments, and some later developed countries are also becoming democratized. Although some systems may not be working well, there is always the effort toward betterment through the election.

The election system is the core of democracy, the way people choose a candidate who could represent their voices. Usually a candidate belongs to a political party with which he shares his views. In Japan, there are the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party, the Communist Party, etc. Or in the United States, they are the Republicans and the Democrats.

Every democracy has a parliament whose members are chosen by people through elections. In Japan, we have 2-house-system, the Upper House, to which I belong, and the Lower House. The original parliament dates back to the Meiji period, 1890. The Upper House used to be the House of Lords, whose members were appointed by the Emperor, while the members of the Lower House were elected by a limited franchise.

When the World War II ended, we had the new constitution with a strong influence of GHQ. The Constitution proclaims sovereign power of the people, respect for the basic human rights, and the pursuit of peace. The Diet, our parliament is the highest organ of the sovereign power.

I was only an elementary school girl when this new constitution was enacted. I clearly remember how excited I was to know that we were free forever from the fear of militarism and that we had a democratic government which proclaims equality of men and women among other good things. Women now have the right to vote at the national elections, but never did I imagine then that I would ever be involved in politics. Although our constitution and civil laws had changed, people in general still had a traditional way of thinking about men and women relations: that is, men should go out to work while women stay home and take care of their family.

I finished my schooling but wanted to do one thing before I got married and settled. That was to go to the United States to see, with my own eyes, the real America which had influenced our country so much. And I was lucky enough to go to the United States in 1958 to study at Brandeis University. To my surprise, the post-war America was conservative under the Eisenhauer government, especially so in the male-female relations. Women went to college just like men, but only to find their future husbands. I also found out that there was a racial discrimination against blacks, and to a lesser degree, against Asians.

I was shocked to find out that democracy, freedom and equality for all were not really in practice in the very country which taught Japan those great ideals.

I spent almost 20 years in the US first as a student and later as a wife and mother of two children. While my children were growing up, I returned school to do further study on various subjects on the American society. I had such an advantage to observe America which transformed herself from conservative to a sort of radical, soul-searching nation: freedom march, affirmative action, hippy culture, greening of America, etc.

During this transforming period, there were such great political leaders as J.F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., just to mention a few.

With my asset of having lived in the United States for so many years, I wrote essays from a comparative cultural point of view. I also translated those books which I thought the Japanese audience might find interesting. Some of these are; "Japan as No.1" by Ezra Vogel, and "Shifting Gears" by George and Nina O'niel. I also did Haru Reichauer's "Samurai and Silk."

When both of our children reached college level, my husband and I came back to Japan, and I had more opportunity to write and lecture on contemporary societies.

Those activities, as well as my rather unusual background might have caught attention as a political candidate. In 1986, the Komei Party asked me to run as a candidate for the Upper House Election and promised me to put me on the top of the proportional representation list. Without much hesitation, I accepted the offer. I did so, because I believed that politics is a worthy profession and wanted to accomplish certain things in the Japanese politics.

First, I wanted Japan to take a visible leadership in the international scene, namely in the area of Overseas Development Assistance, with a special emphasis on environment.

Second, I wanted the Japanese people to get a fair share of the Japan's expanding economy. When I joined the politics, Japanese people were still under poor living conditions and suffering from a high price for everything.

Thirdly, I wanted to participate in planning for the old age society which was rapidly approaching. In the year 2025, one forth of our population will be 65 years old and over.

I have been involved in the Japanese politics for the past 13 years, which coincided with ups and downs of the bubble economy. Now things have changed even in Japan. Once confident Japanese people almost single-minded in pursuit of economic growth for themselves and for their country are now rather pessimistic and soul searching. Once young and full-employment society, but people are now worried about their job security and their old age.

Economy is not doing well, industries are cutting employment and downsizing their facilities. Financial institutions are badly damaged by the fall of bubble-economy.

LDP government, now in coalition with the Liberal Party, is trying to boost Japan's economy by stimulus package of public work spending and tax-cut. What is left with is a huge 600 trillion yens budget deficit both in the central and local government. Although we have a huge trade surplus, foreign assets as well as personal savings of 120 trillion yens, people do not have a bright view about the future of our country.

The role that politics should play is enormous. A strong political leadership is essential to steer Japan to avoid economic crush and to safely land on modest but steady economic growth. Also needed is the leadership to make people look ahead.

In July last year, I ran for the Upper House Election for the third term, this time from Chiba Prefecture, and was elected by getting three quarters of a million votes.

Now I belong to the Democratic Party of Japan, the second largest party which is a middle-of-the-road reformist group. We are insisting on the power shift "from central government to local government," and "from bureaucracy to grass roots"

We want to see our country to be decentralized, deregulated and open. And at the same time, our country should be the one which makes a fair contribution to the developing countries, to which we once used to belong.

Thank you very much.