Hisako Takahashi

Hisako Takahashi (高橋 久子, Takahashi Hisako, September 21, 1927 – December 21, 2013) was a bureaucrat with the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare and served as a Supreme Court Justice of Japan. She was awarded an Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1st class.

Early life and education

Takahashi was born in Yokohama on September 21, 1927. She graduated from Ochanomizu University, then studied in Tokyo University's economics department.[1]

Career

After graduating in 1953, she started working for the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. She was assigned to the Women's Bureau, where she was chief of employment statistics. She was later reassigned to the Women and Youth Bureau. There she found that women did menial chores in the department, and evidence of other gender discrimintation. This inspired her to advocate for gender equality. Takahashi left public service in 1982.[1]

Takahashi spent the next few years working as the director of the Asian Women’s Interchange Research Forum and the president of the 21st Century Occupational Foundation. She then became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Japan on February 9, 1994 by Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa.[2] She did not have a degree in law.[3] Takahashi's term on the Supreme Court ended on September 20, 1997 when she reached the obligatory retirement age of 70.

Takahashi was awarded an Order of the Sacred Treasure in 2000.[4]

She died on December 21, 2013 at 86 years old.[5]

Major Supreme Court cases

Selected works
  • Takahashi, Hisako (1983). 変わりゆく婦人労働 : 若年短期未婚型から中高年既婚型へ. Tokyo: Yūhikaku.

References
  1. Tateishi, Kay K. "Takahashi Hisako | Japanese economist and government official". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-08-03.
  2. "Japanese jurisprudence: Hisako Takahashi will make Japanese..." chicagotribune.com. February 6, 1994. Retrieved 2019-08-03.
  3. Haley, John Owen (2006). The spirit of Japanese law. Athens: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0820328871. OCLC 71801410.
  4. 「2000年春の叙勲、受章者総数は4607人」『読売新聞』2000年4月29日朝刊
  5. "女性初の最高裁判事が死去 高橋久子氏". 47NEWS. 共同通信社. 2013-12-24. Archived from the original on 2013-12-25. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
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