She attended high school in the United States and graduated from Waseda University. She spent most of her early adulthood working with her father's famous Etsuzankai organization, and was elected to the Diet in 1993, shortly after her father's final fall from power.
She was the first female foreign minister of Japan, from April 2001 to January 2002, but was fired from the cabinet after making remarks critical of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Later that year, she was kicked out of the ruling LDP and barred from party membership for two years.
In August of 2002, Tanaka resigned from the Diet over allegations that she had embezzled her secretaries' civil service salaries. A Tokyo court cleared her in September, and she ran for the Diet again as an independent in November. She is now in close alliance with the Democratic Party of Japan.
She kept her maiden name after marrying Naoki Suzuki in 1969.
MakikoTanaka, daughter of Kakuei Tanaka, Japan' most revered postwar Prime Minister, was recently inducted as Japanese Foreign Minister and no longer seems to be following in her father's footsteps.
Tanaka's outspoken and irreverent political style has gained her cult status among the Japanese public, and since becoming the country's first female front-ranking cabinet appointee, she has stamped her dominance on the political landscape.
Tanaka entered the Diet in 1991, and from then on the public spotlight was now firmly on the outspoken lawmaker, not only because she was the heiress to Japan's most renowned postwar political dynasty, but because she was a woman.
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