On Tuesday, hours after being elected as Japan’s first ever female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi announced her 19-member cabinet. During her leadership campaign, she vowed to boost the number of women in it to levels comparable with nations such as Iceland, where six of the 11 members are women, and Finland, where women occupy 11 of 19 cabinet posts. However, her first cabinet included just two women: Kimi Onoda as economic security minister and Satsuki Katayama, who became the first female to hold the post of finance minister.
False Claims of Deportations Spread Online
The former has also been assigned to promote a society of “well-ordered and harmonious coexistence with foreign nationals.” She has not, however, been appointed to lead a ministry for mass deportations, which has been falsely claimed on social media, with one post garnering more than 9 million views. As Newsweek pointed out, neither the prime minister nor her cabinet has made statements pointing to a plan to deport foreigners en masse. There was also no mention of it at Onoda’s press conference on Wednesday.
“Crimes and disruptive behavior by some foreign nationals, as well as inappropriate use of public systems, are causing anxiety and a sense of unfairness among Japanese citizens,” she said. “I want to work in close coordination with relevant agencies and advance comprehensive discussions as a unified government on various issues, including strict measures against those who do not follow the rules and the revision of systems and policies that are currently inadequate for the present circumstances.”
About Kimi Onoda
Born in Chicago to a Japanese mother and an American father, Onoda moved to Okayama Prefecture, at the age of 1. Her mother brought her up alone as her father abandoned the family, leaving no child support. While at university, she acquired a high school teacher’s license in civics, but then went on to work at a video game company. In 2011, she began her political career when she was elected as an assembly member in Tokyo’s Kita ward.
In 2016, Onoda was elected to parliament as a House of Councillors member. Following the election, however, it was discovered that she had not completed the renunciation procedure in the US, which meant that she still had dual nationality status. Onoda apologized for her lack of knowledge before officially renouncing her US citizenship the following year. A staunch nationalist who has been critical of foreign influence in Japanese land ownership, Onoda was referred to as Takaichi’s “captain” during her leadership campaign. She is the youngest member of the new prime minister’s cabinet.
