Toshiko Matsuo (; 14 July 1907 – 3 June 1993) was a Japanese politician. She was one of the first group of women elected to the House of Representatives in 1946,Otsuka Kiyoe (2008) Japanese Women's Legislative and Administrative Reforms in the Postwar Era Bulletin of the Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University serving in parliament until 1960.
Biography Born in Yokohama in 1907, Matsuo was educated at Ferris Japanese-English Girls' School. She became an English teacher at the Yokohama YMCA and established her own school, which later became the Japan Women's English Academy.
Matsuo contested the 1946 general elections as a Japan Socialist Party candidate in Kanagawa, and was elected to the House of Representatives.Analysis of the 1946 Japanese General Election United States Department of State, 1946, p60 She was re-elected in 1947, 1949, 1952, 1955 and 1958 and became a member of the party's central executive committee. In 1948 Finance Minister was forced to resign after attempting to kiss Matsuo and Harue Yamashita.Amorous Jap Cabinet Minister Resigns The Miami News, 14 December 1948
After losing her seat in the 1960 elections, Matsuo unsuccessfully contested a later election as a Democratic Socialist Party candidate. She later joined the Liberal Democratic Party and became an advisor in Kanagawa Prefecture, as well as serving as chair of the Yokohama Citizens' Credit Union and president of the Matsuo Kosan company. She died in 1993.
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