Masako Nakata

was one of Japan's first female lawyers.

Biography

Masako Tanaka was born and raised in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo on December 1, 1910. Her father Kunijiro was a major in the Military Police who loved reading William Shakespeare in English, and encouraged his daughter to study which was a rather rare attitude among parents in 1920s' Japan.

Early life and education

Tanaka finished the elementary education at the affiliated school to the Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School and graduated from a municipal girls' higher school. As she studied at Nitobe Inazo's new school for girls to major in economics, to transfer again to Meiji University as a sophomore in the Women's Class of 1935, and continued her practice as a lawyer in Tottori Prefecture to become the first woman president of the Tottori Bar Association in 1969, and finished as the director of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. As her service to the Tottori Family Court, Nakata was appointed as the Head Conciliator, and in the field of gender equality, Nakata accepted the Ministry of Labor's offer to sit on the Tottori committee for equal opportunity.

Nakata died in Tottori on October 15, 2002 at the age of 91.

Honors and merits 1974 Blue ribbon 1981 4th class, Gold Rays with Rosette