Fumiko Chikuma

Fumiko Chikuma (知久馬 二三子, Chikuma Fumiko; born 1 February 1937) is a Japanese Social Democratic Party (SDP) politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 1999 until 2000. Prior to her election, she worked as a local government official for Mitoku, Tottori [ja ] and its successor Misasa and as director of Misasa Town Library, before being elected to the latter's town council in 1997, remaining there until 2013.

Chikuma was born on 1 February 1937.^[1] After graduating from Misasa Junior High School [ja ], she started working at the Mitoku [ja ] Village Office and, after the village was merged into Misasa, Tottori in 1953, served as the town's director of health policy and as director of Misasa Town Library.^[1]

In the 1996 Japanese general election, she ran as the Social Democratic Party candidate for the Tottori 1st district but came second to Shigeru Ishiba;^[2] she also came second in the Chūgoku proportional representation block, which had only one winning SDP candidate.^[3] The following year, she was elected to Misasa Town Council.^[4] In 1999, after Tadatoshi Akiba resigned to successfully run for mayor of Hiroshima, she was elected to the House of Representatives, before losing in the 2000 Japanese general election.^[4] Additionally, she has served as representative director of the SDP's Tottori Prefectural Association.^[5]

After being unseated from the national Diet, she remained in Misasa Town Council, and she was re-elected in 2001, 2005, and 2009,^{[4] [6] [7]} However, she did not stand for office in the 2013 election.^[8]