Elected the chairperson of the Japan Socialist Party in 1986, Doi Takako (born 1928) led the party to larger victories at the polls and in a financial revival of the party, but was forced to resign in 1991. She also mobilized Japanese women.

Doi Takako was a unique phenomenon in Japanese political history. She was elected the tenth chairperson of the Japan Socialist Party (JSP), and the first-ever woman leader of any Japanese political party, in September 1986, in the wake of the party's devastating defeat in the House of Representatives (lower house) and House of Councillors (upper house) elections held simultaneously only a few weeks before. Not only did her arrival as the JSP's top leader overnight raise the JSP's popularity by nearly 5 percentage points, but the chronically money-starved party made nearly half a million dollars within the next 12 months by selling some 300,000 telephone cards bearing her picture and autograph, each...