"My family and I don't have any problem with this, " says Makiko Kino, mother to three small boys.

BBC: Community spirit shines through in Japan's dark times

Or so Makiko Yakushige thought when she first saw it seven years ago.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

The father of Makiko Tanaka, another prominent member, was once prime minister.

ECONOMIST: Japan

Instead, they snipe at his foreign minister, the redoubtable Makiko Tanaka, a woman whose outspokenness is unsettling those who prefer Japan's usual ultra-cautious diplomacy.

ECONOMIST: Japanese politics

Prominent marathon runners include 28-year-old Ito Makiko, champion at the 1997 Tokyo women's international, and Suzuki Hiromi, 29, who took a gold at the world track and field championships last year.

CNN: Japan evens the odds

Makiko Tanaka, the foreign minister at the time, accused Mr Suzuki, an excitable politician from Hokkaido, a northern island, who appears to have great sway with mandarins in the foreign ministry, of blocking the aid groups (supposedly because they had criticised the government) and tampering in ministry matters.

ECONOMIST: More trouble at the foreign ministry