Quota Nonadoption in Japan: The Role of the Women's Movement and the Opposition

Abstract

In 2003, Japan's dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) committed to the goal of 30% female representation in management and political positions by 2020 to conform with the international norm to promote women's leadership. This nonbinding commitment received widespread media attention. In 2012, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe reemphasized this goal before the lower house election. Yet, in his first cabinet, Abe appointed only two women. Moreover, in the 2013 upper house election, the LDP fielded only 9 women out of 79 candidates, nowhere near the 30% candidate goal (Torres 2013). In September 2014, Abe appointed five new women in his cabinet reshuffle, two of whom were forced to resign a month later due to scandals. Four women currently sit on the cabinet due to one female replacement (Flackler 2014). Despite Abe's attempts to increase women in his cabinet, most agree that Japan is not on target to meet the 30% benchmark (Gender Equality Bureau 2012).

Conservative Women in Germany and Japan: Chancellors versus Madonnas

“…While the JSP did well in the 1990 lower house election, it performed poorly in the 1993 lower house election because of its antiquated position on the peace constitution in the wake of the first Iraq War (Stockwin 1994, 2000). The JSP had the potential to provide a challenge from a left-wing party on women's participation, but its ideological inflexibility and weak party organization prevented it from continuing to capitalize on the “Madonna Boom” (Gaunder 2015). Because the efforts of the JSP to elect more women could not be sustained, the LDP did not feel pressure to respond in a systematic structural way.…”

Conceptualizing and Measuring Women's Political Leadership: From Presence to Balance

“…Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has publicly claimed to support increasing female representation in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed the country for most of the period since 1955. Yet experts argue that “quota adoption has not been a mainstream priority,” and the LDP “continues to marginalize women in the party” (Gaunder 2015, 176). As in Pakistan, there is a weak pipeline for women in Japan to gain leadership experience.…”

“…However, scholars argue that Japan's “1.5 party” system traditionally has not been particularly supportive of including and promoting women among its leadership (Iwanaga 2008, 115). Although the LDP now claims to support the proliferation of women among its ranks and did experience some gains under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (2001–2006), “the party organization does not contain any institutional mechanisms to nominate women candidates,” and within Japan, “the weakness of the Left has reduced the pressure to legislate quotas to increase the number of women candidates” (Gaunder 2015, 182, 177). For example, the Japanese Communist Party nominated many women candidates in 2012 but won few seats, and the center-left Democratic Party of Japan brought 26 new women into parliament in 2009, but none was reelected in 2012 (Gaunder 2015, 181).…”

“…Although the LDP now claims to support the proliferation of women among its ranks and did experience some gains under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (2001–2006), “the party organization does not contain any institutional mechanisms to nominate women candidates,” and within Japan, “the weakness of the Left has reduced the pressure to legislate quotas to increase the number of women candidates” (Gaunder 2015, 182, 177). For example, the Japanese Communist Party nominated many women candidates in 2012 but won few seats, and the center-left Democratic Party of Japan brought 26 new women into parliament in 2009, but none was reelected in 2012 (Gaunder 2015, 181). Thus, while some Japanese prime ministers may put forth the image of a gender-balanced government, closer analysis reveals a lack of genuine initiatives to promote women's leadership in a diversity of political bodies.…”

The Contradictions of the Womenomics Campaign: Abe Shinzō's Employment Reforms and Japan's Public Service Workers

“…This lack of influence reflects the low numbers and lack of stature of female politicians in Japan (Dalton 2017b;Rich 2017;Nihon keizai shinbun 2017e, 2017f). Japan's political parties, even on the left, lack institutional mechanisms for nominating female candidates (Dalton 2017b, 12-23, 37-43, 103-121), and nominate them in substantial numbers only when the electoral advantages seem clear (Gaunder 2015; see also Dalton 2017b, 55-61). Consequently, just 10.1 percent of members in the Diet's House of Representatives are women (ranking 158 th globally according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (Nihon keizai shinbun 2018e, 2), along with 20.7 percent in the Upper House.…”