Seiko Hashimoto

On top of her Olympic career, she is the mother of six children while working in politics and other leadership positions.

She graduated from a high school affiliated with Komazawa University in 1983 and joined the Fuji Kyuko railway company.

Father's influence Her father gave her the name Seiko after the , inspired by the 1964 Tokyo Olympics that year. Her father's name is Zenkichi Hashimoto (Japanese: 橋本善吉, Hepburn: Hashimoto Zenkichi, died on 19 October 2020 at the age of 96). She started speed skating by her father's parental influence. He wished her to be an Olympian. She grew up hearing from him that she was born to participate in the Olympics.

She was the first lawmaker in Japan to give birth to her a child while in office in 2000, and later had 2 more children, becoming the mother of 6. She initially entrusted employees of her political office with the care of her children while at work but led an initiative to establish a childcare facility at the Diet of Japan, which opened in 2010.

Political career Seiko deals with health issues in politics and a decline in birth rate, and she is the Minister in Charge of Women's Empowerment.

Hashimoto resigned from Fuji Kyuko in 1993 and was elected to the House of Councilors in 1995, winning re-election in three subsequent elections. She competed in the Olympics while serving as a lawmaker in 1996. She served as Vice-Minister for Hokkaido Development from 2000 to 2001, as chair of the Education Committee from 2001 to 2003, as deputy secretary-general of the LDP from 2003, and as state secretary (senior vice-minister) for foreign affairs under the Taro Aso administration (2008–2009). The LDP excluded her name from consideration in a 20 December telephone poll due to her responsibilities as head of the Japanese competitor delegation to the 2014 Winter Olympics. Seiko had to leave her position as one of two women in Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's cabinet to accept her role in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics committee. It has been revealed that Hashimoto received 20.57 million yen in kickbacks from Liberal Democratic Party and Abe faction, which was not recorded in the income and expenditure report.

Olympic leadership

In August 2014, Hashimoto became embroiled in accusations of sexual harassment of Japanese male figure skater Daisuke Takahashi. Weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun published a story with several photographs showing Hashimoto and Takahashi dancing at a party following the closing of the Sochi Winter Olympics. Several magazines said that she hugged and kissed him due to their unequal power dynamics, because she was on the Olympic committee, a politician, and a former Olympian herself. In contrast, Takahashi, known as the prince on ice in Japan, objected to the magazine's article and did not think that her behaviors are connected to sexual or power harassment. The story alleged that Hashimoto had kissed Takahashi several times despite the latter's obvious attempts to resist. Hashimoto denied the allegations. Takahashi's management also said that the popular skater had not been harassed.

In September 2019, Hashimoto became the Minister of State for Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. On 18 February 2021, she stepped down from that role in order to take over as President of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee. Hashimoto replaced former Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori, who had earlier offered his resignation following comments he made at a committee meeting that were regarded as sexist. Mori claims to have received criticism from his wife, daughter, and granddaughter for his statements. In response to his comments, many women lawmakers, as well as some men, wore white as a means protesting to express their disagreement with his comments

In February 2022, she received the 2021 IOC Women and Sport Awards, which was presented to individuals or a group who has contributed to give opportunity, recognition, and empowerment foe women in sports. She was evaluated to promote gender equality, increasing the ratio of the female directors by roughly 40% in the Olympic Organizing Committee (OOC).

A nonpartisan sports all-party parliamentary group decided to launch an all-party parliamentary federation to invite the 2030 Sapporo Winter Olympics/ Paralympics. Seiko Hashimoto, The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games serves as chairman again.

On 26 June 2025, Hashimoto became the first woman to be elected president of the Japanese Olympic Committee.