Cairo University Grad Elected as First Female Governor of Tokyo

By Scoop Team On Aug 4, 2016

Yuriko Koike, Member of the House of Representatives, National Diet of Japan captured during the Opening Plenary session "The Future of the Middle East" at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2008 held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. — Yuriko Koike during the World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2008 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Photo courtesy World Economic Forum.

Tokyo’s new governor is not only a woman (and the first female governor of Tokyo at that) and former Defense Minister. Yuriko Koike also studied in Egypt and speaks Arabic, according to the New York Times.

Koike is quite unusual, and seems to be just what the people of Tokyo want: she beat her nearest opponent in the governor’s race by more than a million votes, reported the NYT.

“I want to regain the trust of the people of Tokyo,” she said. As for her local ties, Koike left her Japanese university in 1970 to study in Egypt, where she studied Arabic at AUC before going on to earn a degree in sociology from Cairo University. Before entering politics she spent some time working as a translator, and she’s fluent in English as well as Arabic.

WE SAID THIS: It makes us wonder… have Cairo University grads been elected anywhere else outside the Arab world?