Hisako Takahashi

was a bureaucrat with the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare and served as a Supreme Court Justice of Japan. She was awarded an Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1st class.

Early life and education Takahashi was born in Yokohama on September 21, 1927. She graduated from Ochanomizu University, then studied in Tokyo University's economics department.

Career After graduating in 1953, she started working for the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. She was assigned to the Women's Bureau, where she was chief of employment statistics. She was later reassigned to the Women and Youth Bureau. There she found that women did menial chores in the department, and evidence of other gender discrimintation. This inspired her to advocate for gender equality. Takahashi left public service in 1982. She did not have a degree in law. Takahashi's term on the Supreme Court ended on September 20, 1997, when she reached the obligatory retirement age of 70.

Takahashi was awarded an Order of the Sacred Treasure in 2000.

She died on December 21, 2013, at 86 years old.

Major Supreme Court cases

1995 – Lockheed bribery scandal; apportionment of the 1993 Japanese general election

Selected works