Japan Ranks Low in Female Lawmakers. An Election Won’t Change That.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/world/asia/japan-women-election-politics.html

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OBIHIRO, Japan — Standing before an audience of mostly men here on Japan’s northern island, a parliamentary candidate in Sunday’s elections made a pointed appeal.

“I am 33 years old, and I have two children,” Kaori Ishikawa said. “Why shouldn’t such a woman be elected?”

Japan has one of the worst records in the world for female political representation. With women holding just over 9 percent of seats in the lower house of parliament, the nation ranks 165th out of 193 countries in the proportion of women in its national legislature, according to international data. Among the world’s richest countries, it is dead last.

It seemed as if this election could change some of that. It won’t.

Yuriko Koike, the popular governor of Tokyo, founded a new party to great fanfare this year and toyed with running for parliament herself. Many thought she presented the tantalizing possibility of becoming the first female prime minister in Japan.

But two weeks ago, Ms. Koike decided not to run. And even in her own party, only one-fifth of the candidates are women.

Fewer than one in five of the 1,180 candidates running in this Sunday’s election for the lower house of parliament are women — and that is a record high for Japan. Among candidates for the governing Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has repeatedly said he wants to create a society where women can “shine,” fewer than one in 12 are women.

What’s more, the number of women standing as candidates for the governing party is down by about 40 percent since three years ago.

With so few women running and the Liberal Democrats looking set for a landslide victory, the gender makeup of parliament is unlikely to change.

“That’s already pretty bad to be the lowest of all the developed economies,” said Yumiko Murakami, head of the Tokyo Center of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “And it may be even worse when we get up in the morning on Monday. That is what makes me worried, and yet there is no serious discussion as to what should be done.”

The barriers for women entering political life in Japan are many. Entrenched political machines often favor longstanding relationships with men. And women face scrutiny from the news media and the public that focuses on personalities and looks rather than political accomplishments.

In this election, the news media has pounded several female candidates for extramarital affairs, including a woman whose husband was the one who cheated. This week’s issue of Shukan Bunshun, a popular tabloid magazine, features an article about three female parliamentary candidates with the headline, “Can the ‘Affair Disaster’ Girls Make It?”

Political experts say it is difficult to find enough women to run for office even though women are as educated as men and female participation in the work force is relatively high. Those with leadership potential may not want to leave workplaces where they fought so hard to advance.

“It is not that easy to bring serious women to the political arena,” said Mieko Nakabayashi, a professor of political science at Waseda University in Tokyo.

Kathy Matsui, chief Japan equity strategist at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo who has advised Mr. Abe on women’s issues, said political parties needed to groom female candidates. “You do need somebody who is really going to build that consensus at the top and say, ‘Look, this is just not right,’” Ms. Matsui said. “If the society is 50-50, then we need to represent everybody’s interests.”

Some women say they would rather put their energy into changing the Japanese work culture to allow employees more flexible hours and to structure jobs around projects rather than time sheets, steps that could be helpful to women, especially mothers.

Here in the 11th District of Hokkaido, a 4,200-square-mile region of farmland that prides itself on its pork, dairy products and coastal seafood, the two leading candidates are women, making it a rare exception to the gender imbalance.

Ms. Ishikawa, a former television announcer, is representing the Constitutional Democratic Party, a left-leaning party formed this month. Her chief rival is another woman, Yuko Nakagawa, the incumbent from the right-leaning Liberal Democrats. The two are running neck-and-neck, according to local polls.

The challenges to women trying to make their way in the public sphere in Japan were readily apparent on the campaign trail. Both candidates followed their husbands into politics, a point frequently emphasized by supporters and critics alike.

Ms. Ishikawa is the wife of Tomohiro Ishikawa, a former legislator who was indicted on charges of violating political finance laws and is prohibited from running for office. News reports have characterized her as merely taking his place.

“I am not a substitute,” she declared on Thursday evening at a local agricultural association. “My seriousness has been tested in this election, but I am asking you to help me win.”

Ms. Nakagawa, 58, is the widow of Shoichi Nakagawa, a renowned national lawmaker and close ally of Mr. Abe whose father was also a member of parliament. Although she has served five years in the Diet, as Japan’s parliament is known, party officials say her last name carries more weight than her experience.

On Friday morning, Ms. Nakagawa appeared at a meeting at the party’s headquarters in Obihiro, the largest city in the district. In a large cement-floored room where a Shinto altar dedicated to her husband loomed behind her, she bowed and thanked a group of all-male party and business leaders for their support.

Toru Otsuka, a conservative member of the Obihiro City Council, acknowledged that Ms. Nakagawa had “made an effort” during her time in office. But, he said, “the local people in this area like her husband’s legacy.”

“If a dog bites a man it does not make news, but if a man bites a dog it is news,” Mr. Otsuka said. “It is still a rare case for women to run, so that is why people are paying attention to this women’s boom.”

Ms. Nakagawa has emphasized her role in the government response to a series of damaging typhoons last year, though tabloids have dredged up her affair with a married legislator nearly three years ago. During a debate in Obihiro, the moderator referred to the affair.

“I do think women are more likely to be asked those kinds of questions,” Ms. Nakagawa said.

Ms. Nakagawa herself seemed to invoke gender stereotypes when she quipped in a campaign speech that she was having a tough time competing with Ms. Ishikawa because she is “beautiful and young,” a comment that was picked up by a national television news program.

Ms. Nakagawa said she was trying to make a joke. “Before talking about my policies, I wanted to get people to relax,” she said. “The media was being mean by just picking up that comment.”

During the campaign, Mr. Abe has pledged to increase spending on child care and education, but has not addressed the low number of women running on his ticket. The secretary-general of the party, Toshihiro Nikai, told reporters that gender should not be a factor.

“It’s better to decide on candidates naturally,” he said, “not because they are male or female.”

Women’s advocates say the government must go beyond rhetoric to improve gender equality in politics.

This year, a bipartisan committee in the lower house introduced a bill to encourage parties to set targets for the proportion of female candidates. Mr. Abe dissolved the lower chamber before the bill came up for a vote.

Ryoko Akamatsu, president of Women in New World, International Network, a women’s advocacy group that backed the measure, said quotas had worked in other countries, like France. “They were serious,” Ms. Akamatsu said.

Some women say that having more female lawmakers won’t matter. “I’m not really sure whether having so many women there makes that much of a difference,” said Yoko Ishikura, professor emeritus of international corporate strategy at Hitotsubashi University.

But at a campaign stop at a strip mall in Obihiro on Friday, Yoko Tazaki, a 44-year-old part-time nurse and mother of a 10-year-old son, came to cheer on Ms. Ishikawa.

“I want to support a person like Kaori who is raising children right now,” Ms. Tazaki said, explaining that she had been forced to leave a full-time job when her son was born and had found it difficult to re-enter the work force. “I think Kaori can change that situation,” Ms. Tazaki said.