Wakako Hironaka

Wakako Hironaka (Japanese広 中 和 歌子, Wakako Hironaka, born May 11, 1934 in Tokyo) is a former Japanese Upper House MPs of the Democratic Party (DPJ ) and was from 1993 to 1994, Japanese Minister as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the party they belonged to the Hata group.

Hironaka studied English literature at Ochanomizu Women's University. Subsequently, she earned a master's degree in anthropology at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. In the election of 1986, she was first elected on the proportional representation for the Kōmeitō to the top flight and confirmed in 1992. She was appointed to the Cabinet Hosokawa as Head of the Environment Agency in 1993.

After the dissolution of Kōmeitō to Hironaka participated in 1994 at the founding of the Shinshinto, following its dissolution then to the formation of the voice of the people (国民 の 声, Kokumin no Koe ). In the Upper House election in 1998, she was elected as independents for Chiba. She later joined the DPJ and was from October to December 2002 and from 2005 to 2006 deputy party chairman. In the 2010 election Sangiin Hironaka ran on the DPJ proportional representation list, but received only 28,629 votes nationwide preference and failed re-election.

Hironaka has published and translated a number of books. She is married to the mathematician Heisuke Hironaka and has two children.