Fusaye Ichikawa

1974 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Community Leadership from Japan. Fusaye Ichikawa was a Japanese politician and feminist. Working as a teacher in Tokyo she helped to found the New Women’s Association which successfully fought for women’s right to attend political meetings. During her time in the United States, she was impressed by the suffrage movement and in time formed the Women’s Suffrage League in Japan. After World War II she became head of the New Japan Women’s League, which secured the vote for women in 1945. She campaigned against legalized prostitution and served in the Japanese Diet (1952--71), where she continued to press for an end to bureaucratic corruption. A tireless champion of women's issues, she would organize and participate in women's conferences in Japan and internationally, and in 1980 emerged as the leading voice in urging the Japanese government to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. After defeat in 1971, the then 81-year old Ishikawa was asked to run again, and earned a fourth term in the Diet in 1974. She was re-elected to the House of Councilors in 1980, with the highest number of votes from the national constituency.