Former internal affairs minister Seiko Noda, the first female chair of the Lower House Budget Committee, is making headlines for her unconventional style in steering deliberations — calling lawmakers by their names with the honorific suffix san, rather than kun, which is usually used for men.
In Budget Committee deliberations, it has been customary for the chair to use "kun" for lawmakers, regardless of their gender. But when Noda, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, debuted as the committee chair Thursday, she didn't adhere to that custom, instead addressing all lawmakers with the "san" suffix.
"Society normally uses 'san' for both men and women. I didn't really think about it," Noda told reporters after her first session as the chair on Thursday, adding that it seemed "natural" to address them as such.