WOMEN-JAPAN: Activists Campaign for More Females in Government

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Apr 7 2000 (IPS) - The Japanese Diet that voted for Yoshiro Mori as the country’s new Prime Minister on Wednesday was made up mostly of men, but Japanese women activists are determined to see more female faces in the legislature soon.

A veteran politician and one-time journalist, Mori took over the reins of government from Obuchi, a political ally who suffered a debilitaing stroke on Sunday. He has vowed to continue his predecessor’s economic programmes which helped stabilise the economy.

A political organisation, meanwhile, that aims to raise the profile of women as lawmakers says it now has a kitty of three million yen (28,500 dollars) for the use of women who want to run in the next general elections, which is scheduled this fall.

WIN WIN, the Japanese chapter of the US-based EMILY’s List launched in 1985 by Democratic Party supporters, also says it has 700 members — 90 percent of them women — so far, each of whom donated a minimum of 10,000 yen (95 dollars) to the women’s campaign fund.

To be sure, WIN WIN’s fund is small compared to the coffers of the major parties. But WIN WIN secretary Yoko Harada seems unperturbed, and instead says that the point they want to emphasise is that Japan should have more female politicians.

“There is an urgent need to improve the current rates, which have put Japan, a developed country, at the bottom of the list (of nations ranked according to the number of women in government),” she says.

Women make up 8.9 percent of the Japanese Diet, putting the country at the 123rd spot of female representation in government.

Women also represent only 25 seats or a measly five percent of the powerful Lower House. This figure is double that of a decade ago, but as activists point out, it is still far lower than its counterpart numbers in Germany (30.9 percent of the federal congress), Britain (18.4 percent) and the United States (13.8 percent).

Japan, of course, is still doing better in terms of its number of women representatives compared to neighbouring South Korea, where only 3.7 percent of the legislators are female.

But that may change soon. In February, South Korean lawmakers passed a law obligating all parties to ensure that women will make up 30 percent of their respective candidate lists for national and local proportional representation elections.

As Japan’s largest daily, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ observed recently, the law will boost the proportion of women in the South Korean Lower House, thereby paving the way for South Korea to surpass Japan’s pathetic showing.

That, however, is if Japanese women fail in their attempt to clinch more legislative seats for themselves. Just last month, a total of 137 women publicly expressed their desire to run in the upcoming general polls.

In the last general election, some 153 female candidates ran, of which seven won in single-seat constituencies while 16 were elected by proportional representation.

Among the women candidates in the next Lower House elections will be at least 16 from the Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), a breakaway group from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Miho Takai, 28, is among Minshuto’s female candidates. The political neophyte says they have already received one million yen (9,500 dollars) for their campaign. Last month, Minshuto announced that it would be setting up a special fund for its female candidates.

Takai will be running against a 50-year-old incumbent who also happens to be a veteran LDP member. As if that is not enough pressure, Misako Natori, who won a seat two years ago in the Hino municipal elections, says she can vouch for the fierce battle women have to wage if they want a place in the political arena.

Natori, 46, was in fact an ordinary housewife with three children before she thought of running for public office. After borrowing money from her parents, she ran as an independent, campaigning for better welfare and a policy for garbage reduction — two issues that she says concerned women directly.

“I could never have won if not for the huge volunteer support from women in my neighbourhood,” says Natori, now one of six women who work in the 46-member Hino Ward, which belongs to Tokyo. “Women supported me because it is they who carry the burden of looking after the aged and are mostly responsible for discarding the household rubbish.”

“The struggle is too hard for women,” she observes. “They lack funds that are crucial for the campaign and the social upbringing to enter politics because the norm is that this is a man’s world and women are better suited to look after the family.”

But some political analysts say that Natori’s victory, while modest, nevertheless indicates that Japan at that time was already undergoing changes that could well translate to increasing opportunities in politics for women in the future.

Says political expert Minoru Tada: “In contrast to 20 years ago when economic growth was the only issue, Japan is now facing an ageing society that makes topics like welfare an intense political debate. Thus, there will be more votes for women who are traditionally seen as better placed to deal with these problems.”

Minshuto head Yukio Hatayama himself told party members last month, “We need women’s strength — the strength that arises from your tenderness — in the politics and the administration of the nation.”

Tada also says that there are now more men out there who have taken on tasks such as looking after elderly parents and taking out the garbage. Because of this, the political analyst argues, these men — rendered jobless by the recession — appreciate the issues being championed by many women candidates and may be more inclined to vote for them.