Tomoko Tamura

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Tomoko Tamura
田村 智子
Tamura in 2024
Chairwoman of the Japanese Communist Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 January 2024
Preceded by	Kazuo Shii
Member of the House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 October 2024
Constituency	Tokyo PR block
Member of the House of Councillors
In office 12 July 2010 – 15 October 2024
Constituency	National PR
Personal details
Born	Tomoko Yamazaki (1965-07-04) July 4, 1965 (age 59) Komoro, Nagano, Japan
Political party	Japanese Communist Party (since 1985)
Children	2
Alma mater	Waseda University

Tomoko Tamura (Japanese: 田村 智子, née Yamazaki, born 4 July 1965) is a Japanese politician who is the current chairwoman of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP). She was a member of the House of Councillors from 2010 to 2024.

Tamura was born on July 4, 1965, in Komoro, Nagano Prefecture, to parents who owned a stationery shop.^[1][2] While attending Waseda University, after a series of protests and strikes against an increase in tuition, she joined the Democratic Youth League of Japan, the youth wing of the Japanese Communist Party.^[3]

After she graduated, she took full time employment with the Democratic Youth League of Japan, organizing anti-war protests and pro-peace rallies.^[4] From 1995, she had switched to the main Japanese Communist Party and worked as the secretary and deputy secretary respectively for House of Representative members Ikuko Ishii and Miyo Inoue. She ran unsuccessfully for the House of Councilors in 1998, 2001, and 2007, and for the House of Representatives in 2005.^[5]

Tamura was first elected to the House of Councilors in the 2010 election, for the National party list block, and was subsequently reelected in 2016 and 2022.^[6][7] Before becoming the party's leader, she served as the vice chair of the executive committee and the chair of the policy committee.^[8] She criticized former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's female cabinet picks, saying that they were performative instead of advancing women's empowerment.^[9] She also criticized Abe over his involvement in the cherry blossom scandal.^[10]

On January 18, 2024, she replaced Kazuo Shii as chair of the Japan Communist Party. She became the party's first female chair in history.^[11][12] Tamura was selected to replace Shii after he was caught in a scandal after expelling two members of the Japanese Communist Party who had called for the democratic election of the party's leadership by party members. Tamura's selection has been viewed by some as an attempt to repair the Communist Party's image in this scandal's wake.^[13]

Tamura stood for the October 2024 House of Representatives election as the top candidate on the Communist Party list for the Tokyo proportional representation block. She thus automatically lost her seat in the House of Councillors when the election was officially announced.^[14]

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