Etsuko Kawada, winner of Sunday's House of Representatives by-election in Tokyo's No. 21 single-seat constituency, said Monday she felt a great sense of mission in being elected at a time of strong public distrust in politics.
Speaking to reporters at her campaign office in the western Tokyo city of Tachikawa, Kawada said, "I'm happy to feel that this is the first step toward a fresh change in the political process."
Kawada, whose hemophiliac son's legal battle over contracting HIV through tainted blood products challenged the Japanese establishment during the mid-1990s, campaigned to end codependence among the political community, the bureaucracy and domestic industries, and pledged to fight for improved government transparency.