Former Prime Minister Rebecca Miyamoto Dies at Age 92 Prime Minister Rebecca Miyamoto, who died Wednesday afternoon, held the office of Prime Minister from 1982 until 1994
Osaka - Rebecca Miyamoto, who held the office of Prime Minister from 1982 until 1994, died on Wednesday afternoon at the age of 92, her family reports. She died of natural causes.
Miyamoto was born on 13 August 1926 in Osaka, Icpo Yon, Gandoor as Rebecca Heartfield to Alexander Heartfield (1895-1968) and Alexis Heartfield (1899-1996). She was her parent's second child out of three. In her autobiography, Miyamoto would describe her childhood as "simple" and that "her family was one that cared about each other over anything else" and that her parents assured her that "they'd always help her if she had problems".
In 1946, at the age of 20, Miyamoto began attending the University of Osaka where she majored in political science. It was at the University of Osaka where Miyamoto first decided to get into politics, when she joined the Student Government Organization in 1947. In 1948, she was elected as President of the Student Government Organization.
After graduating from the University of Osaka in 1953, Miyamoto entered politics as a member of the New Democratic Party. Her first job in politics was helping get Johnathan Jones II elected as a city councilman in 1954. Soon after this, in 1956, Miyamoto ran for city council herself, but was defeated and received only 26.4% of the votes.
After this, Miyamoto returned to college in 1957, moving to Gandoor City and attending the University of Gandoor City until 1964. It was at the University of Gandoor City that Miyamoto met her future husband, Junichiro Miyamoto, in 1960. The two began dating a few months after meeting and later married in 1966. They would remain together until Junichiro's death in 2004.
After graduating for the second time, Miyamoto moved back to her hometown of Osaka where she ran for city council once again, only this time, she managed to get elected and became the first female member of the Osaka city council. During her five years on the city council, Miyamoto pushed for the rights of women and minorities in Osaka. It was during this period of her life that she and Junichiro had their first child, Susanne Miyamoto, in 1968. In 1967, Miyamoto left the New Democratic Party and became a member of the Gandoor Communist Party.
In 1969, Miyamoto ran for the House of Icpo, where she received 57.3% of the vote and defeated incumbent Gregory Stetson and represented the 8th District of Icpo for three terms of two years each. During her years in the House of Icpo, Miyamoto championed the rights of homosexuals and, in 1970, famously said that, "if I had the authority, I would make same-sex marriage legal nationwide, as the homosexuals of Gandoor have all the same rights to marriage as someone like me." While she wasn't the first politician in Gandoor to support gay rights, this made her the first one to publicly declare support for same-sex marriage.
Miyamoto ran for the Forum in 1975 and was elected. During her time on the Forum, Miyamoto continued her championing of the rights of homosexuals and other minorities. In 1977, she gave birth to her second and last child, Yuki Miyamoto. In addition, she campaigned for reform of the welfare system, which she and others believed was being abused due to it still utilizing the same method of giving welfare as it had when it was established in 1908. Miyamoto's campaign was a success and in 1979, Prime Minister Reginald D. McFatton Sr. signed welfare reform into law.
In 1980, the Gandoor Communist Party announced that Miyamoto would be their candidate for Prime Minister in the 1982 elections. When the election occurred, Miyamoto defeated the incumbent McFatton and received 55.4% of the votes and was sworn in as Prime Minister on 12 October 1982. It was during Miyamoto's two terms as Prime Minister that her goal of legalizing same-sex marriage was accomplished, in 1988, the High Court of Gandoor ruled that since Gandoor's Constitution defined marriage as "a consenting union between any two persons", it was unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
After her two terms, Miyamoto announced her retirement from politics and spent her days supporting humanitarian missions around the world until 2004, when she announced her retirement from public life following the death of her husband. In 2013, she published her autobiography,
My Life, which reached number two in The Gandoor Times Bestseller List.
Miyamoto's two daughters have announced that, in accordance with their late mother's wishes, she is going to be cremated following a state funeral in her honour, as is customary in Gandoor when a former Prime Minister dies.
Rebecca Miyamoto will be remembered by citizens all over Gandoor as a politician who cared for the rights of minorities in Gandoor and often wasn't afraid to speak her mind to reveal these opinions and views. In a survey in 2013, published a few weeks before her autobiography was released, she was ranked as the fifth greatest Prime Minister Gandoor has ever had since the establishment of the current government in 1904.