Women: Invisible issue in Japan polls
TOKYO — When voters go to the polls on Sunday to elect Japan's powerful lower house of parliament, only one out of every six candidates will be a woman.
That is despite the fact that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly proclaimed his desire for Japan to be a country where women "shine," where they would hold a third of all top jobs by 2020, and despite the fact that almost as many women as men will be voting.
"I don't see it being discussed at all as a focus of the election," said Kaori Sasaki, president and CEO of consulting firm ewoman.
Abe called the election last month, just halfway through a four- year term, labelling the vote a referendum on "Abenomics" – his signature blend of monetary easing, fiscal largesse and promised structural reforms.
While there is now plenty of easy money floating around and the stimulus taps are wide open, the work of reform – including making it easier for women to combine a career and a family – has barely begun.
The last two years have been big on prime ministerial rhetoric about getting rid of the glass ceiling, including the goal of getting women into 30 percent of senior positions by the time of the Tokyo Olympics, but short on results, said Sasaki.
"He may no longer be prime minister in 2020, which makes it a bit unclear if he is seriously committed to achieving that target," she said.
In the current 480 seat lower house of parliament, just 39 seats – eight percent – are held by women. That places Japan 129th out of 189 countries in a ranking compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a Geneva-based organization of parliaments.
By comparison, 45 percent of Swedish lawmakers are women, 23 percent in Britain and 20 percent in Saudi Arabia.
And the gender balance in the Japanese parliament isn't about to get a great deal better.
Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is fielding women in less t han 12 percent of t he seats they are fighting. Overall, 198 of the 1191 – 16.6 percent – of the candidates in this election are women, and none of the main parties is led by one.