Unemployed woman ready to take up Diet seat

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Voters spelled out their yearning for change in the Aug. 30 election, sending 143 new faces from the Democratic Party of Japan to the Diet — including a 43-year-old unemployed woman.

New power suit: Incoming Diet member Kayoko Isogai picks out clothes at a Nagoya department store Thursday. KYODO PHOTO

Kayoko Isogai said she had never dreamed of becoming a lawmaker before she was asked by the DPJ to run in the election to secure the last spot in the 21-seat Tokai block in the proportional representation race.

Supporters of Isogai, who has held mostly nonregular jobs since graduating from a university, say she should aim at becoming "a representative of the downtrodden and a rising star for the socially withdrawn."

"It came totally out of the blue," Isogai said, recalling how a DPJ Upper House lawmaker she knows asked her to be listed at the bottom of the 41 DPJ candidates in the Tokai block.

That was just three days before the official campaigning for the election kicked off Aug. 18. "At first, I thought I'd be asked to help with campaigning (for the DPJ)," she said.

During the two-week campaign period that followed, Isogai, using the slogan "Let's send ordinary people to the Diet," made only two campaign speeches, in contrast to the vast majority of other candidates who gave numerous speeches.

Graduating from Aichi Prefectural University in 1988, Isogai majored in literature. Last year, she couldn't work as her mother, whom she had taken care of, passed away.

Surrounded by around 10 staff members at her campaign office on election night, Isogai said as the results were coming in, "It's not good for my heart." But at around 2 a.m. she and her supporters got the good news.

"I didn't expect I could win a seat," Isogai said. "My parents in heaven would be knocked over in surprise."

She bought her first suit ever and is learning the Constitution and Diet rules.

"As I myself have real worries about the future, I want to raise my voice (on the political scene)," she said. "One day, I want to hear people say, 'It was good she became a politician.' "