Toshiko Takeya

Who is Toshiko Takeya?

Toshiko Takeya is Japanese Senator from Tokyo and a member of Kōmeitō. She received the second highest vote share in the 2010 Japanese Senate election in Tokyo and succeeded Yūji Sawa as Kōmeitō Senator from Tokyo who retired after one term.

A native of Shibetsu town, Hokkaidō, Takeya graduated from Sōka High School in Kodaira city, Tokyo and from Sōka University's Faculty of Economics in 1992. During her university studies, she passed the examination as Certified Public Accountant in 1991. After graduation, she began to work for Tōmatsu "LLC". In 1996, she transferred to Tōmatsu spin-off ABeam Consulting "Ltd.". Her work at ABeam included development projects in Indonesia and Vietnam.

As Yūji Sawa announced his retirement in order to not hit Kōmeitō's age limit of 66 while in office, Takeya decided to enter national politics in December 2009. Tokyo elects five Senators per election since 2007; in the 2010 election, popular Democratic administrative reform minister Renhō Murata garnered over 1.7 million votes, more than twice than any other candidate.