Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
Takako Doi (土井 たか子, Doi Takako, November 30, 1928 – September 20, 2014) was a prominent Japanese politician from 1980 until her retirement in 2005. She was the first female Lower House Speaker in Japan, the highest position a female politician has ever held in the country's modern history, as well as the country's first female Opposition Leader.