Chiyo Sakakibara (Japanese: 榊原千代, 15 July 1898 – 28 April 1987) was a Japanese journalist, educator and politician. She was one of the first group of women elected to the House of Representatives in 1946.[1] In 1948 she was appointed Deputy Secretary of Justice, also becoming the first woman appointed to a cabinet post.
After the war, Sakakibara was a Japan Socialist Party candidate in Fukushima in the 1946 general elections (the first in which women could vote), and was elected to the House of Representatives.[4] She was re-elected in the 1947 elections, after which she was appointed Deputy Secretary of Justice in the Tetsu Katayamagovernment, becoming the first woman appointed to the cabinet.[2] However, she lost her seat in the 1949 elections.
In 1951 Sakakibara became a member of the National University Management Law Enactment Committee. In the same year she became president of the Feliz Jogakuin [ja] school corporation and a director of Aoyama Gakuin. She was also a founding member of International Christian University, served as a director of Seiko Gakuin High School [ja] and became a mediator for the Tokyo Family Court.