Date of birth: Dec. 11, 1973

LDP faction: Tsushima

Electoral district: Lower House; Gunma No. 5 (third term)

The 34-year-old Obuchi becomes the youngest ever to hold a Cabinet position in the postwar period, beating out Seiko Noda, who became posts minister at age 37.

Obuchi was first elected to the Lower House in 2000 after her father, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, died that year.

After graduating from Seijo University in Tokyo, she began working at major broadcaster TBS in 1996. After leaving there in 1999, she went to London to study English.

In September 2006, Obuchi was appointed by Shinzo Abe as parliamentary secretary in the education ministry.

She married a television producer in 2004 and had her first child, a son, in September 2007. Her hobbies include golf, watching plays and scuba diving.