Japan

What Kishida’s reshuffle says about female participation in politics

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appointed a record-tying five women to ministerial posts in his Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, as well as one to a key position in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as he aims to increase female executives in...

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Council on Foreign Relations

Koike Yuriko: tackling gender bias from the Tokyo metropolitan government

If we consider how to advance the status of women in Japan, we must consider it from two vantage points. First, gender equality is necessary for the well-being of individual Japanese people. Second, it is necessary to have diverse perspectives in...

Monday, September 11, 2023

Many female election candidates face sexual harassment, verbal abuse in Japan

The Mainichi

Many female candidates, including sexual minorities, who ran in this past spring's nationwide unified local elections faced harassment while campaigning, a survey by a group of young people working for gender equality in politics has found. The...

Council on Foreign Relations

Friday, September 08, 2023

Women’s voices project pivots to Japan

Launched in January 2022 by Senior Fellow Manjari Chatterjee Miller, and now joined by Senior Fellows Sheila A. Smith and Scott Snyder, CFR’s Women’s Voices from the Indo-Pacific is an interview series highlighting women leaders in the United...

Wednesday, September 06, 2023

LDP to Make Database to Increase Female Lawmakers

Nippon

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is poised to create a database on women aiming to become politicians as one of additional measures to increase female lawmakers of the party. At its meeting Tuesday, the LDP's Headquarters for Implementing...

Friday, August 18, 2023

Japanese political parties boosting support for female candidates

Political parties are boosting support for female candidates as part of preparations for the next election for the House of Representatives. The parties hope to win the support of independent voters by demonstrating their commitment to increasing...

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Japan falls nine positions to 125th in WEF gender gap report

Japan has fallen in the global gender gap rankings, coming in nine positions lower than last year at 125th out of 146 countries, according to a World Economic Forum report released Wednesday. Click here to read the full article published by The...

Saturday, May 20, 2023

Women take on Japan's political gender gap for 'true democracy'

Women are a rare sight in Japanese politics, but 20-year-old Rinka Saito is determined to run for office one day because "you can't have true democracy without diversity." She is one of a small group of young women being offered mentoring and money...

Mika Inomata (center), a municipal assembly member of Ebetsu, Hokkaido, speaks with supporters at her office. | BLOOMBERG

Thursday, May 04, 2023

A small Japanese town sets new precedent for women in politics

Japan Times

A handful of small cities in Japan have managed to do what the rest of the country hasn’t: Elect women. Among the country’s city councils and assemblies, men held more than 80% of the total seats as of 2021. But in Ebetsu, a small city in northern...

Tuesday, May 02, 2023

VOX POPULI: women still have a long way to go in the world of Japanese politics

The Asahi Shimbun

Alarmed by the abysmal scarcity of women in politics, a university professor and others held the first-ever series of seminars in the spring of 2018 to train women considering a political career. At the time, female lawmakers accounted for only a...

Satoko Kishimoto was elected mayor of Suginami last June - the district's first ever female leader

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

The female mayor in Tokyo fighting Japan's sexist attitudes

BBC

Satoko Kishimoto finds running one of Tokyo's main districts to be a lonely job. Back in June, the 48-year-old became the first female mayor in the history of Suginami. The former environmental activist and democracy advocate managed to beat the...

Tokyo’s skyline. Female participation in Japanese politics is among the lowest in the world. Photograph: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty Images

Friday, April 07, 2023

‘I decided I could do better than them’: the women taking on Japan’s male-dominated politics

The Guardian

Female candidates in the local elections across the country this weekend face one of the world’s toughest glass ceilings Ai Ishimori was teaching Japanese cookery classes in France when she was gripped by an urge to return to her home country. “...

Noriko Suematsu, mayor of Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, speaks in an interview at Suzuka City Hall in October. | KYODO

Friday, February 17, 2023

Survey highlights struggles faced by Japan's female politicians

Japan Times

TSU, MIE PREF. – Female politicians and leaders in Japan are more likely to face gender bias and sexual harassment than their male counterparts, with their competence often questioned regardless of past experience, a recent survey by Kyodo News...

Academics and politicians aiming to see more mothers elected to public office hold a news conference in Tokyo on Monday. | TOMOKO OTAKE

Wednesday, November 02, 2022

Project aims to help mothers run in Japan's local elections next year

A group of researchers and female politicians said Monday that they will start a campaign to help mothers with young children run in next April’s nationwide gubernatorial and municipal assembly elections. The project, called “Kosodate Senkyo Hack...

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

How women are banding together to change Japanese politics

CS Monitor

On a sweltering day in July, Yoshii Aya, still reeling from her bitter election defeat a few months prior, arrived in Kyoto with a stack of leftover business cards tailored for that bygone race. During a three-day political training camp for women...

Satoko Kishimoto, the new mayor of Tokyo’s Suginami district: ‘I thought something had to change.’ Photograph: Asia Europe People's Forum/Youtube

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

"Dominated by old men": Tokyo ward’s first female mayor takes on status quo

The Guardian

Satoko Kishimoto sets sights on ‘radical change’ in Japan, where only 2% of local government leaders are women. The first female mayor of a district in Tokyo has vowed to challenge Japan’s male-dominated politics, weeks after she became one of only...

Incumbent Upper House lawmaker Renho bows to supporters at her office in Minato Ward, Tokyo, after securing re-election on Sunday night. | KYODO

Monday, July 18, 2022

Women win record 35 of 125 seats in Japan's Upper House election

Japan Times

Sunday’s Upper House election saw a record 35 seats go to women, with veteran lawmakers and new contenders of all stripes voted in. In a race overshadowed by the murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — who during his tenure pushed the slogan “a...

Female local politicians exchange opinions with Seiko Noda, left in the back row, state minister in charge of gender equality, in Tokyo in May 2018. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Thursday, July 07, 2022

Japan: Local assemblies identify barriers that stop women entering politics

The Asahi Shimbun

Local politicians across Japan feel that more needs to be done to help women enter and remain in politics, from combatting sexual harassment to beefing up maternity leave policies, according to a new survey. And assemblymen pointed to another...