If Seiko Noda doesn't achieve her quarter-century goal to become the nation's first female prime minister, maybe one of the 70-odd women who filed into a conference room to hear her speak Sunday will.
The women — smartly dressed, ages 15 to 69 — comprised the inaugural class of Noda's first-of-its-kind school for female politicians. Noda, 57, who is Japan's internal affairs and communications minister and long-shot candidate to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this year, plans to use the forum to prepare a new generation of women for the challenges of political leadership in the male-dominated society.
"I didn't set this school up for myself," said Noda, one of just 22 women among the 283 Lower House lawmakers from Abe's Liberal Democratic Party. "I suffered because I didn't have any role models, and I want to make it easier for the next generation. This is really something political parties should do, but they never have."