Kyōko Asanuma

Kyōko Asanuma (; February 1, 1904 – March 10, 1981) was a Japanese politician. She served one term in the House of Representatives and was the wife of Inejirō Asanuma, who was chairman of the Japan Socialist Party.

 Life 
Kyōko Asanuma, born Kyōko Takeda, came into the world on February 1, 1904, in Hita, Ōita Prefecture. Her father was a dentist named Tsuneichi Takeda. She finished the upper division of Hita Elementary School.

At 17 she married, but she did not like the very old-fashioned rules in her husband's family, so she divorced soon after. She moved to Tokyo planning to learn dressmaking so she could earn her own living.

In Tokyo she worked in a café that many socialists visited. There she met Inejirō Asanuma. They married in the fall of 1928.

In 1945 she joined the Japan Socialist Party and helped with the Women's Issues Research Committee.

On October 12, 1960, her husband was assassinated by Otoya Yamaguchi while giving a speech at Hibiya Public Hall.

On November 2, 1960, Otoya Yamaguchi killed himself in prison. The next day Kyōko Asanuma spoke to reporters. She said she felt pity for the 17-year-old rather than hate, but she felt strong hate for the people who had influenced him to do the crime.

In November 1960 she ran in the general election in Tokyo's 1st district for the Japan Socialist Party and won a seat. She served from 1960 to 1963 but did not run again in 1963.

After leaving the Diet, she worked to build friendship between Japan and China. In 1964 she went to Beijing for the 15th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. In 1970 she visited China twice. In October she sent a message to a meeting remembering the 10th anniversary of her husband's death. In December she went to Beijing with her son-in-law Nakano (a journalist who wrote about pollution) and met Premier Zhou Enlai and Vice Chairman Guo Moruo.

In 1978 she met Deng Xiaoping when he visited Japan.

She wrote a memoir called Together with My Husband Inejirō Asanuma in the magazine Fujin Kōron in December 1960.

Kyōko Asanuma died in Tokyo on March 10, 1981. She is buried at Tama Cemetery. She and her husband had no children of their own but adopted a daughter named Kinue, who was a distant relative of Inejirō Asanuma.

 See also 
 Inejirō Asanuma

 References 

Category:1904 births
Category:1981 deaths
Category:Japanese politicians
Category:Members of the House of Representatives (Japan)
Category:Japanese socialists