Japanese actress turned politician Chikage Ogi held several important positions during her 30-year long political career. Her experience led to her role as the first female President of the House of Councillors in 2004.
Ogi, whose real name was Hiroko Hayashi, was born in 1933 in Kobe, Hyogo. She attributes her interest in politics to her survival of the Kobe Air Attack as a young child, prompting her efforts to attain peace and national defense.
Ogi graduated from Takarazuka Music School and joined the Takarazuka Revue, a famous all-female musical troupe, in April 1954. She appeared in many stage productions, movies, and television dramas, also hosting a popular tabloid show called “Sanji no Anata.”
Ogi left work as a television personality after being elected to the Upper House in 1977 on the ticket of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. She left the LDP in 1994 and moved to the now-defunct New Frontier Party before coming to the forefront in 2000 as the founder and leader of the Conservative Party, later named the New Conservative Party.
Ogi was appointed by the Japanese Prime Minister as Minister of Construction and Director General of the National Land Agency, and, later that year, also as Minister of Transportation and Director General of Hokkaido Development Agency. After these ministries and agencies merged into the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport due to administrative reform of 2001, she was installed as its first minister. She resigned in September of that year.
Ogi returned to the LDP in 2003 and was installed as the 26th President of the House of Councillors in July 2004. She was elected to the Upper House five more times before announcing her retirement from politics in July 2007 so that she could lead an ordinary life with her family.
During her time in government, Ogi utilized the performance skills she developed as an actress to enhance her image and fulfill her political ambitions. Understanding the restrictions women faced in a male-dominated government, she creatively upheld and subverted gender norms to achieve political longevity. She became the first woman to receive the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers from the government. Ogi died of esophageal cancer in Tokyo, on March 9, 2023, at the age of 89.