She served as a member of the House of Representatives for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) between 2012 and 2017, when she represented the 4th District of Niigata prefecture.

Born in the village of Tsukigata (now part of the city of Niigata), Kaneko was educated at Waseda University.

[1] She was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2012 general elections, defeating the incumbent representative Makiko Kikuta of the Democratic Party of Japan.

Kaneko is married to Kensuke Miyazaki, who served as an LDP representative for Kyoto until resigning in 2016 after it was revealed that he had an affair whilst Kaneko was pregnant.

[2] Her husband's affair was believed to have caused damage to her reputation among her constituents, leading to her defeat in 2017.