Kanae Doi, a 34-year-old lawyer, has always wanted to be on the side of the weak. As a director of the Tokyo bureau of Human Rights Watch, a position she has held since 2008, she is trying to change Japanese politics to protect human rights.
A strong sense of justice comes naturally to her, she said. "I cannot really explain why." She said she naturally sympathizes with the weak rather than the powerful.
Doi's passion for helping the weak was fueled in high school, when she read the book "Ningen no Daichi" ("Earth of People") by Michiko Inukai, a granddaughter of former Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai.