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Tanaka Makiko (田中 真紀子, b.
1944) is a
Japanese politician, the daughter of former Prime Minister
Tanaka Kakuei. She attended
high school in the
United States and graduated from
Waseda University. She spent most of her early adulthood working with
her father's famous
Etsuzankai organization, and was elected to the
Diet in
1993, shortly after her father's final fall from power.
She was the first female
foreign minister of Japan, from April 2001 to January 2002, but was
fired from the
cabinet after making remarks critical of Prime Minister
Koizumi Junichiro. Later that year, she was kicked out of the ruling
LDP and barred from party membership for two years.
In August of
2002, Tanaka resigned from the Diet over allegations that she had
embezzled her secretaries'
civil service salaries. A Tokyo court cleared her in September, and
she ran for the Diet again as an
independent in November. She is now in close alliance with the
Democratic Party of Japan.
She kept her maiden name after marrying
Suzuki Naoki in
1969.
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