Tomi Kōra

Early life and education Kōra was born on July 1, 1896, in Toyama Prefecture. She was the second Japanese woman to obtain a PhD in psychology, after Haraguchi.

Kōra was elected as a Councillor in the 1947 Japanese House of Councillors election, as a member of the Democratic Party. She switched to the Ryokufūkai party in 1949, and served in the House of Councillors for 12 years. Per a request from the US embassy, the Japanese Foreign Ministry had refused to issue passports to those who wished to travel to the Soviet Union; Kōra got around this restriction by travelling to Moscow through Paris, Copenhagen, and Helsinki. They met with vice-minister of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade Lei Rei-min and were invited to Beijing. At the time, the Japanese government did not recognize the legitimacy of the PRC government. That May, she visited Beijing as a member of the House of Councillors Special Committee for the Repatriation of Overseas Japanese. The visit was a diplomatic breakthrough, resulting in the first PRC–Japan private-sector trade agreement (signed June 1, 1952 Both praise and opposition greeted the trade agreement from Japanese legislators.

Personal life

In 1929, Kōra married psychiatrist They had three daughters, including the poet Kōra was a practising Quaker.