Shiori Yamao

Shiori Yamao (山尾 志桜里, Yamao Shiori, née Kanno) is a former member of the Japanese House of Representatives for the Aichi 7th district.[1] Yamao was a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan from 2017 to 2020. She was the policy chief of the Democratic Party[2] and a former liberal member of the Democratic Party of Japan.[3] She has been elected to the Japanese House of Representatives thrice. She rose to prominence by criticizing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for not handling the issue of nursery school waiting lists.[2][4]

Shiori Yamao
山尾 志桜里
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
14 December 2014 – 14 October 2021
Preceded byJunji Suzuki
Succeeded byJunji Suzuki
ConstituencyAichi-7th
In office
30 August 2009 – 16 November 2012
Preceded byJunji Suzuki
Succeeded byJunji Suzuki
ConstituencyAichi-7th
Personal details
Born (1974-07-24) 24 July 1974
Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
Political partyIndependent
Other political
affiliations		CDP (2017–2020)
Independent (2017, 2020)
DP (2016–2017)
DPJ (2009–2016, merger)
Alma materUniversity of Tokyo
Websitewww.yamaoshiori.jp

Political career

Entry into politics

Allegations of affair and resignation

Following allegations of an extramarital affair with Rintaro Kuramochi published in Shukan Bunshun, Yamao resigned from the Democratic Party.[4] She denied having the affair and maintained that the allegations were false. Her resignation was viewed as an attempt to control damage within the Democratic Party, which was struggling with fledgling support at that time.

The allegations did not dent her popularity back in her home district. Although she had to run as an independent, she was able to hold her district in the election on 22 October 2017 by a narrow margin of 834 votes.[5] Her advocacy and her status as a prominent Diet rival to Prime Minister Abe were touted as the main reasons of her high support in the district, particularly among swing voters.[6] Her tough stance against Abe made her a constant target of right-wing campaigners. After her win, a rumor of voting fraud in the district was spread and the local election office was bombarded with calls and emails claiming that she was illegitimately elected.[7]

Post 2017 election

Yamao applied to join the new progressive Constitutional Democratic Party after the 2017 election. The CDP did not grant her party membership straight away but allowed her to sit as independent member in the CDP caucus in the House of Representatives.[8] Her entry application was approved on 26 December 2017.[9] She filed a notice of withdrawal on 18 March 2020 and was accepted on 24 March 2020.

Involvement in the special mission of the Kishida Cabinet

After the assassination of Shinzo Abe on 8 July 2022, the longstanding ties between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party with the Unification Church (UC) gained huge coverage by the Japanese media and plunged the Kishida Cabinet's approval. The UC was known for their predatory fundraising, known locally as spiritual sales, which was specifically targeting Japanese people. After Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his second cabinet, Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono, who was also given the special mission of consumer affairs and food safety, established the "Spiritual Sales Review Committee" to obtain suggestions from experts of cult-related frauds. Shiori Kanno was one of the eight members initially elected into the committee.[10]

Political positions

Yamao is known to be opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, arguing that the agreement does not protect Japan's national interests.[11]

In a joint letter initiated by Norbert Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the 47th G7 summit in 2021, Yamao joined some 70 legislators from Europe and the US in calling upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including artificial intelligence and 5G.[12]

Yamao insists on “Constitutionalistic Revision (立憲的改憲),” aiming for constitutional revision from a “liberal” perspective. She was one of the members of the Commission on the Constitution (House of Representatives) who represents the DPFP as of February 2021. She opposed constitutional revision by the Abe administration. Regarding Article 9, she proposes to change the text to limit the sphere of the Self Defense Forces' activity only to individual self-defense purposes, denying its collective self-defense right.

References
  1. "Members_Y". Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  2. "Yamao to be named policy chief of new Democratic Party". 25 March 2016. Archived from the original on 7 August 2017.
  3. "Japan's new opposition party to boast liberal-leaning slate". 25 March 2016. Archived from the original on 25 March 2017.
  4. Osaki, Tomohiro (7 September 2017). "Lawmaker Yamao resigns from the DP after alleged extramarital affair deepens opposition party's crisis". Archived from the original on 11 September 2017.
  5. 小選挙区開票速報：愛知（定数15） Archived 3 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Yamao and Inada survive scandals but Toyota is booted out". Kyodo via Japan Times. 24 October 2017. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017.
  7. Osaki, Tomohiro (25 October 2017). "Aichi voting office overwhelmed by calls as right-wing campaign alleges foul play in re-election of Shiori Yamao". Japan Times. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017.
  8. 立憲民主党・市民クラブ Archived 11 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  9. "蓮舫氏、立民へ入党届" (in Japanese). Kyodo News. 26 December 2017. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017.
  10. "Lawyers Kito and Shiori Kanno are in the spiritual sales review committee of the Consumer Affairs Agency" 消費者庁の霊感商法検討会、委員に紀藤弁護士や菅野志桜里氏, The Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese), 26 August 2022, retrieved 27 August 2022
  11. "In Japan, The Diet Deliberates TPP". Archived from the original on 2 July 2017.
  12. Stuart Lau (January 25, 2021), G7 lawmakers tell leaders to ‘stand up’ to China Politico Europe.
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