Japan to appoint first female prosecutor general in July

The Japanese government decided Friday to appoint Naomi Unemoto, the 61-year-old top prosecutor of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office, as the first female prosecutor general next month.

The appointment as of July 9 will leave the Supreme Court as the only body of legal professions in Japan that has never had a female head since the Japan Federation of Bar Associations already has its first female president, Reiko Fuchigami, who was elected in April. Unemoto will replace 64-year-old Yukio Kai, who will retire.

“It is important to secure diversity in terms of female empowerment and in decision-making. We will facilitate efforts to recruit and appoint female public servants,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi in a regular news conference.

Hailing from Chiba, near Tokyo, Unemoto became a prosecutor in 1988 after she graduated from Chuo University.

She worked at the Justice Ministry for a relatively long time, during which she held posts, including the director general of its rehabilitation bureau, and also served as the trial department director of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office.

After becoming the top prosecutor of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office in January 2023, Unemoto led investigations including a slush funds scandal of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and a bribery case of offshore wind power projects.

She also gave up filing a special appeal against the Tokyo High Court’s decision to reopen a high-profile 1966 quadruple murder case in which Iwao Hakamata was sentenced to death.