Society Local elections: female candidates facing tough glass ceiling

[thomas]

The Guardian on female candidates in today's local elections: female participation in politics in Japan is among the lowest in the world. The cabinet of Fumio Kishida contains just two women a decade after Abe, the prime minister's mentor in the LDP, promised in a speech to the UN general assembly to "create a society in which women shine".

Japan fares poorly in international comparisons of female representation, ranking 165th out of more than 180 countries, with women comprising just 10% of lower house MPs, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Just over 30% of town and village assemblies have no female representatives, according to 2019 figures, and at the last lower house election, in 2021, of the 1,051 candidates, just 186 – or less than 18% – were women. An alarming number of women who run for office say they are the target of sexual and other forms of harassment, including inappropriate touching and verbal abuse. In a 2021 cabinet office survey of 1,247 women with seats in local assemblies, 57.6% said they had been sexually harassed by voters, supporters or other assembly members. Many said they had been targeted with sexually explicit language or gender-based insults.

While the LDP has the lowest number of female candidates, other parties fare only slighlty better:

Almost 30% of the centre-left CDP's local election candidates are women, while the Communist party has made the most progress, with 41%. A record 489 women are among the 3,139 candidates for prefectural assembly seats, according to public broadcaster NHK.

And why do female candidates take all the trouble?

Mizuki Ono, who is running for a seat in Setagaya ward in western Tokyo, says little will change as long as children are taught to believe that politics is the preserve of older men. "Girls can't imagine themselves getting involved in politics," she says. "That's one of the main reasons I decided to run for election. I want to be a role model for Japanese girls, so they look to people like me and think: 'I can become a politician, and I can change the world.'"

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

Female candidates in the local elections across the country this weekend face one of the world’s toughest glass ceilings

www.theguardian.com

Editorial: No. of female candidates in Japan's local elections still embarrassingly low - The Mainichi

A record 489 women are vying for seats in the 41 prefectural assembly races that kicked off on March 31 as part of Japan's nationwide local elections.

mainichi.jp