A controversy over citizenship couldn't derail the top candidate for leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in the party election.  Renho Murata is the first woman elected to the position.  This is even though it was revealed that she still held Taiwanese citizenship along with her Japanese Passport.

Ms. Murata takes over a party in a deep slump, promising to transform it into a "revolutionary" party that is more responsive to the needs of working families and women.  She also promises to defend the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Post-war constitution.  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to dump Article 9 so that Japan's military can take part in more military ventures with the United States. 

Renho, as she prefers to be known, has been in the Japanese public eye since she was a teenage model, then a news presenter, and for the last ten years a member of the upper house.  Her father was Taiwanese; back when she was a child, Japan's sexist citizenship laws automatically assigned children the citizenship of their father.  That was changed; and at age 17, Renho fully embraced her Japanese identity in the country where she grew up.  But earlier this week, it came out that Taiwan still had her on its citizenship rolls.  She's correcting that.

"Once the procedures are completed, the state of my citizenship will be ultimately fixed", Renho said.  "As a politician, I have never acted in a way other than being a Japanese citizen," she added.  Renho already held ministerial positions when the DPJ was briefly in power from 2009 to 2012. 

Japan's politics are still dominated grumpy old men, and Renho's ascension is seen as a positive step. Only 15 percent of Parliament seats are held by women.  Still, some DPJ lifers are worried about how the citizenship row will play with growing nationalism in the ruling (and ironically named) Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).  "Her qualifications as a politician are being called into question as her own citizenship has been left ambiguous," said a senior LDP official.  However, Renho remains incredibly popular with the public, collecting more than a million votes in her most-recent parliamentary election.