The elections for Japan's upper House of Councillors in 1989 seemed to mark a seismic shift in the country's politics. With half the chamber's seats in contention, the main opposition party, the Japan Socialist party (later known as the Social Democratic party of Japan), more than trebled its representation, while the ruling Liberal Democratic party, which had been in office for more than three decades, lost its majority. Much of the credit for this belonged to the JSP president Takako Doi, who memorably celebrated the results with the phrase: "The mountain has moved."
Doi, who has died aged 85, had endeared herself to the Japanese electorate through her charismatic personality and straight-talking style. This was unusual in the male-dominated political arena of Japan, where Doi served as the first female leader of a major political party. She was a staunch defender of Japan's pacifist postwar constitution and a campaigner for human rights in a country she described as "an economic giant, but a human-rights midget".
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