Japan’s Prime Minister Wants to Increase Representation of Women in the Workforce—His Field Excluded

The enactment of Japan’s Gender Parity Law, whose goal is to make the number of male and female candidates as equal as possible, has ushered in a new generation of female politicians, who bring with them new concerns and unique perspectives. They have drawn from personal experiences and have begun to promote policies that benefit all Japanese people. These policies include penalizing workplace harassment, further criminalizing nonconsensual sex crimes, and prohibiting discrimination against the LGBTQ communities. Women politicians are forcing Japan to hold necessary discussions that, while brushed aside for decades, are critical to its democratic future.

For their part, Japan’s political parties seem to be all for the effort. Since it is the parties themselves that nominate candidates for office (unlike the open primaries in the U.S.), the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) and the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) have set goals for the amount of female representation they would like to see: 30 percent and 40 percent, respectively. And in Japan’s recent election for the upper house of Parliament, four parties—the DPP and the CDP included—have surpassed these target numbers, achieving near-parity with 49.6 percent female candidates.

It’s disappointing, then, that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), to which Japan’s current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe belongs, stands in opposition to this progress, maintaining the same male-dominant culture it always has. In the same Parliamentary election, women comprised a mere 14.6 percent of candidates for Abe’s LDP. And though Abe was commended in 2014 for appointing five women to his cabinet, only one of them remained in her position by 2018.

But these numbers are not just disheartening—they’re ironic, considering Abe has been lauded for his encouragement of “womenomics” and assertions that empowering women will benefit the economy. In fact, he recently stated that “enhancing opportunities for women to work and to be active in society is no longer a matter of choice for Japan. It is instead a matter of greatest urgency.”

Why then, is he seemingly stripping opportunities from women in politics at a time when other parties are providing them? Why has he chosen to help perpetuate deeply entrenched inequalities when change is a self-proclaimed “matter of greatest urgency”?

If Abe and the rest of his LDP truly considered increased participation of women in politics a priority, they would elevate people like Satsuki Katayama, the current sole female member of his cabinet, to real positions of power. She is currently Japan’s Minister of State for gender affairs and regional revitalization, and enjoys little public recognition and even less power. But if Abe appointed her to run the finance ministry or act as chief cabinet secretary, he would demonstrate that he is serious about making his “womenomics” rhetoric more than just words.

As it stands, however, Abe’s actions work to the severe detriment of female politicians. His behavior is all the more concerning because the adverse effects it reaps don’t just impact women. His hypocrisy deprives not only women of the opportunity to fully participate in their country’s public and economic life, but it also deprives Japanese citizens at large of the important conversations and policies that female politicians bring to the table.

Abe’s rejection of female politician participation is costing Japan economically, too. Strategist Kathy Matsui of Goldman Sachs predicts that if female labor participation equaled that of men—roughly 80 percent—Japan’s gross domestic product would increase by 15 percent, or $5 trillion. Take this alongside the fact that Japan has plunged by numerous spots in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index (falling last year to 114 out of 144 countries, where it lies between Guinea and Ethiopia), and change seems all the more necessary.

A good first step would be an extension of the aforementioned Gender Parity Law. While it currently does require government organizations and large companies to set and disclose nonbinding targets for increasing the proportion of women in recruitment and management ranks, the law did not set such obligations for the political sector. The implementation of a similar system for the government would not only set target numbers for the proportion of women candidates representing political parties in elections, but it would also force politicians to reckon with the Gender Parity Law and its goals, which are to promote the employment and promotion of women.

But even then, it’s difficult to effect real change when Japanese male politicians feel that such measures to combat gender inequality are unwarranted. When asked to explain why there are so few female representatives in Japan, 41 percent of respondents from Abe’s LDP answered that it was due to a lack of interest in politics on the women’s side. Only 11 percent of LDP members answered that inequality was caused by the parties not being seriously committed to recruiting women—the most plausible argument, considering that the leaders of Japan’s political parties nominate candidates themselves.

Ultimately, if Japan is to truly resolve its gender issues and reap the clear and plentiful benefits of female empowerment in politics, the one change that desperately needs to occur is a shift in these politicians’ mindsets. Their assertions are markedly invalidated by the high percentage of female candidates from other parties in the recent parliamentary election. It’s clear that women are ready, willing, and fully able to participate in politics and governance.