Upper House member of the Japanese Diet, Murata Renho — more commonly known as Ren Ho — looks set to become the first Japanese government minister of Taiwanese descent, following reports in the Japanese media that she has been picked by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan to serve in his first Cabinet.
Born as Hsieh Lien-fang (謝蓮舫) to a Taiwanese father and a Japanese mother in Tokyo in 1967, Ren Ho became a naturalized citizen of Japan at the age of 18 and received a law degree from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo in 1990.
Japanese media have reported that Ho is likely to take the position of Kan’s chief Cabinet secretary.
PHOTO: CNA
In the 1990s, Ren Ho studied Chinese at Beijing University. During her stay in China, she would defend Taiwan and Japan whenever her professors made negative remarks.
Before being elected a member of the Diet in 2004, Ren Ho was in the entertainment business and a journalist.
She has also been an active campaigner for fellow Democratic Party of Japan politicians.
As a member of the Diet, Ren Ho performed well during budget reviews and is also known as a diligent politician who spends much of her time researching different social issues. As a mother of two, she has also demonstrated a particular interest in the decline of childbirth in Japanese society.
Ren Ho is also active in the Taiwanese community in Japan.
In May last year, she, her brother and mother took part in an event to promote fruit from Taiwan in Japan, organized by Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興). At the event, Ren Ho spoke briefly in Mandarin, saying she has a particular affinity for fruit from Taiwan because her father, a native of Tainan County, was an exporter of Taiwanese bananas to Japan.
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