Kamikawa Aya
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Kamikawa Aya （上川あや Kamikawa Aya) is a Tokyo municipal official, the first transsexual person to seek elected office in Japan. She was elected in April 2003. Ms. Kamikawa, a 35-year-old writer, submitted her election application papers with a blank space for "sex".
Running as an independent and thanks to disproportionally huge media attention, she won her four-year term seat, placing sixth of 72 candidates running for 52 seats in the Setagaya ward assembly, the most populous district in Tokyo. Despite an announcement that the government would continue to consider her male officially, she insisted that she would work as a woman. Her platform was to improve rights for women, children, the elderly, the handicapped, and LGBT people.
See List of transgendered people.
External links
- 365Gay story (http://365gay.com/NewsContent/042803tgJapanElect.htm)