Sherry Matsuda

Sherry Shizuko Matsuda (/ˈmætsudə/; Japanese: 松田 静子 Matsuda Shizuko, born 27 March 1971) is an Enderronian former politician who served as the 37th Prime Minister of Enderron and leader of the Liberal Party of Enderron from 2009 to 2014. She represented the seat of Rijkens in the Enderronian Parliament from 2005 to 2014. As a second-generation Japanese Enderronian, she was the first Prime Minister of non-European and Asian descent, and the youngest Enderronian head of government at the time of appointment, having taken office at age 38.

Matsuda was born in Shirakawa, Tojima to Akira Matsuda (born 1938) and Yuna Matsuda, née Arata (born 1944). Akira and Yuna migrated from Japan to Enderron in the 1960s. As a part of the Nisei generation of Japanese Enderronians, Matsuda was raised in a culturally Japanese household, and English was her second language. She graduated from the University of Shirakawa with a Bachelor of Commerce. While at university, she became involved in local politics and joined the Liberal Democrats. In 1992, while still attending university, she was elected to the Shirakawa City Council, and became mayor in 1998, at age 27, making her one of the youngest city mayors in Enderronian history.

As mayor, Matsuda pursued a policy of developing Shirakawa's lacking public transit system and decreasing bureaucracy. Under her leadership, the mayoralty became a directly elected office. Opinion polling consistently showed her to be one of Enderron's most popular local politicians from 2002 to 2004, and she was re-elected with comfortable margins in the 2002 and 2004 elections. After seven years in office, Matsuda resigned to contest the 2005 by-election for the seat of Rijkens in the Enderronian Parliament. She won after narrowly defeating the Social Democrats and was immediately promoted to the outer cabinet. She initially served as the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure until the 2006 federal election, when she was promoted to the frontbench as the Minister for Social Services. After Adrian Coghlan became prime minister in 2008, Matsuda became the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Matsuda was elected Deputy Prime Minister unopposed on 14 April 2009 following the resignation of Don Dansby. In July of the same year, she succeeded Coghlan as leader of the Liberal Party, thus becoming prime minister.

Matsuda was the first Liberal leader to be from the Liberal Democrat side of the merger, and was a key figure in the merged Liberal Party's moderate wing. Thus, the Matsuda Government followed a relatively different trajectory to its predecessors, retaining the Liberal Party's fiscally conservative platform but also introducing several socially liberal policies. Matsuda sought to reduce the deficit caused by the global financial crisis, largely through austerity measures and cuts in social spending. Economic growth rebounded and remained relatively strong under her prime ministership, returning to pre-GFC levels towards the end of her tenure. In terms of social policy, Matsuda moved to a significantly more liberal platform compared to her predecessors. Under her leadership, the party legislated to legalise same-sex marriage, but was blocked by its conservative faction. Following a lengthy debate throughout 2010, the legislation was passed through a conscience vote in parliament. Matsuda's administration also enacted several changes to welfare, immigration and tertiary education.

Matsuda led the Liberals to a third term in office at the 2010 federal election, albeit as a minority government. Despite recording high personal approval ratings throughout her time in office, the Liberal Party declined in popularity during her second term and struggled to recover. The Liberals entered the 2014 federal election campaign in the lead, but a late surge by the Social Democrats resulted in another hung parliament result and the Liberal Party losing its plurality. After failing to gain the support of crossbench parties, Matsuda resigned as prime minister and party leader, and as MP shortly after.

Evaluations of Matsuda's prime ministership have been mixed, but generally positive. She has been praised for modernising and unifying the Liberal Party after several years of unstable leadership, and she is credited with moving the party in a more socially liberal and libertarian direction. However, her government's austerity measures and significant cuts to public spending to reduce the national deficit have been criticised for being overly severe, and some scholars have seen her government as a lost opportunity for more social and economic reform, especially in the latter half of her tenure.