Mazie Hirono was born in Kori, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, on November 3, 1947, She moved to the U.S. with her mother when she was eight years old. Despite not knowing how to speak English, Mazie Hirono was enrolled in elementary school, where she had her first job as a student cashier in the lunchroom.
Several years later, Hirono graduated with honors from Kaimuki High School and went through school at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1970. When she wasn't busy with her studies, Hirono tutored, volunteered at a mental hospital, and worked for a summer with at-risk teens through a YWCA program.
She graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1978 and shortly worked in the legal field before she won a seat in the Hawaii State House of Representatives.
In 1980, Hirono decided to take her service to others to the next level, running for a seat in the Hawaii State House of Representatives. She won her race and took her seat in January 1981 (a post she held until 1994), and eventually came to chair the Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee.
Mazie Hirono was elected as Hawaii's lieutenant governor in 1994. In 2006, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, until she was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, becoming the first Asian-American woman, Buddhist and Japan-born person to be elected to the Senate.
Hirono stayed involved in Hawaiian politics, founding the Patsy T. Mink Political Action Committee, which raises money for pro-choice female Democratic candidates in Hawaii. Mazie Hirono won the 2nd District seat by a comfortable margin, becoming the first Asian woman to win election to Congress, and continued to lobby on behalf of her lifelong causes: education, labor, and children and women's issues, as well as issues of importance to the state of Hawaii.
