Shidzue Katō facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Shidzue Katō
Member of the House of Councillors for National District
In office June 4, 1950 – July 7, 1974
Member of the House of Representatives for Tokyo 2nd District
In office April 10, 1946 – December 23, 1948
Personal details
Born	Shidzue Hirota March 2, 1897 Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died	December 22, 2001(2001-12-22) (aged 104) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Japan Socialist Party (1946–1951, 1955–1979) Rightist Socialist Party (1951–1955)
Spouses	Keikichi Ishimoto (1914–1944) Kanjū Katō (1944–2001)

Shidzue Katō (加藤 シヅエ, Katō Shizue, March 2, 1897 – December 22, 2001), also published as Shidzue Ishimoto, was a 20th-century Japanese feminist and one of the first women elected to the Diet of Japan.

Early life

Shidzue Katō was born on March 2, 1897 in Japan to a wealthy ex-samurai family. Her father, Hirota Ritarô [ja] was a successful engineer who received his education and training at the Tokyo Imperial University. Her mother, Tsurumi Toshiko, came from a notable and highly educated family. Hirota travelled frequently to the West for work, and because of this Katō and her family grew up familiar with Western things At age 17, Katō was married to Baron Keikichi Ishimoto (石本恵吉), a Christian humanist interested in social reforms. He was the son of Ishimoto Shinroku.

Move to United States

Shortly after their marriage, Katō (then Ishimoto) and her husband moved to the Miike coalfield in Kyūshū. For three years, they witnessed the horrendous conditions under which the men and women there worked. This experience resulted in Katō and her husband suffering from a breakdown of health, which prompted the couple to move to the United States in 1919. In the United States, Baron Ishimoto began to veer from Christian humanism toward a more radical Communist position. Katō began to live a more independent life as her husband went off to Washington D.C. to act as a consultant and interpreter for the Japanese delegation to a conference of the International Labor Organization. During this time, Katō lived in a tenement apartment and enrolled in secretarial and English courses.

Return to Japan and activism

On her return to Japan in 1921, Katō continued to strive for economic independence. She got a job as a private secretary for the Y.W.C.A, which primarily consisted of introducing Western visitors of Japanese culture and people. She also opened a yarn shop called the Minerva Yarn Store, where she sold imported wool products.

It is around this time that Katō met Kanjū Katō, who would later become her second husband. They met in 1923, when Kanjū Katō, a labor organizer, arranged for her to speak to miners at Ashio copper mine. She was later granted a divorce from her first husband, Baron Ishimoto, and married Katō in 1944.

In keeping with the "influence and respectability of eugenics" in the first part of the twentieth century, Katō Shidzue too supported eugenics, believing that children born to two healthy parents would be better off than children born to sick or weak parents.

The right-wing pro-natalist Japanese government arrested Katō in 1937 for her promotion of "dangerous thoughts," and she spent two weeks in prison.

Diet of Japan (1946–1974)

Katō was the first woman to campaign for office in Japan, campaigning under a Socialist platform with and emphasis on American-style democracy. In 1946, Shidzue Katō was elected to the Japanese Diet. Her campaign platform was based on improving the economic prospects of women. In 1946 she wrote:

Without the liberation and improvement of women, it is impossible to build democracy in Japan.

Although Katō was initially hopeful of women's growing political role, she was soon marginalized in the mostly male Diet. Despite this, she looked for other ways to achieve her political reforms. In 1946 she was instrumental in organizing the first "women only" rally in Tokyo. This rally protested for greater economic resources for women.

Katō was later elected to four six-year terms in the Upper House. She continued to advocate for reforms affecting women's rights. Katō championed many causes during this time, including the abolition of the feudal family code, the establishment of the Women's and Minors Bureau of the Department of Labor and environmental issues.

Honors

Even after Katō retired from politics, she continued her political activism. She continued to lecture on feminist issues, as well as continued to chair the Family Planning Federation of Japan.

In 1988, Katō received the United Nations Population Award.

In 1996, The Katō Shizdue Award was established by Dr. Attiya Inayatullah to commemorate her work. The Katō Shizue Award "targets women's groups, women's organizations and/or individual women who are active in the movement toward empowerment of women (i.e., social, economic, political and legal empowerment) in developing countries and/or in Japan."

Death and legacy

Shidzue Katō died December 22, 2001 at the age of 104.

Works

• Facing Two Ways: The Story of My Life, published by Farrar and Rinehard (New York, NY), 1935. An edited version for children called East Way, West Way: A Modern Japanese Girlhood, illustrated by Fuji Nakamizo, was published by Farrar and Rinehard (New York, NY), in 1936.
• Straight Road, 1956.
• Katō Shizue Hyakusai, c. 1997.

See also

In Spanish: Shidzue Katō para niños