Sunrise Party
is a Japanese politician and a former leader of the Party for Japanese Kokoro. In the past she has been a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Sunrise Party of Japan and Japan Restoration Party and is serving her second term as a member of the House of Councillors (Upper House) in the Diet (national legislature). She was Special Advisor to the Prime Minister ("naikaku sōri-daijin hosakan") for the North Korean abduction issue under Junichiro Koizumi, beginning in 2002. She left the post in 2004 but was reappointed by Shinzō Abe in 2006. She was appointed by Yasuo Fukuda as State Minister in charge of the Population and Gender Equality Issues on August 1, 2008.