World
Europe

A former TV anchor turned head of the Tokyo First Citizens Party. That's Yuriko Koike.

The 65-year-old entered politics in 1992 and she switched among a number of political parties before joining the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2002. Koike quit the LDP in June and now leads a party formed last September by Tokyo assembly members.

Koike served as environment minister in 2003 and became Japan's first female defense minister in 2007. She won Tokyo's gubernatorial election last July as an independent candidate and became the city's first female governor. She defied the local LDP chapter to run and promised to reform governance of the megacity with a population of 13.7 million and an economy bigger than the Netherlands.

As a hawkish politician, Koike advocates the revision of the country's pacifist constitution. She's also a foreign policy hardliner.

(With input from Reuters)

2105km