More female lawmakers, but Japan's Parliament still a man's world

TOKYO — The good news for women is that the number of female lawmakers in Japan rose after yesterday’s election. The bad news: The Lower House is still 91 per cent male.

Forty-five of the 475 lawmakers elected to Parliament are female, up from 38 before yesterday’s election, public broadcaster NHK said. That is a long way short of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s target of having women in 30 per cent of leadership roles in all sectors by 2020.

December 16

Japan has to make better use of its highly educated women to stave off the effects of a workforce shrinking due to one of the world’s lowest birthrates, economists say.

While Mr Abe has sought to increase the number of female role models, he has also failed to pass a Bill requiring large employers to publish plans for the advancement of female employees and made little headway in reducing waiting lists for childcare.

“We’re still far from where Japan needs to go on a long-term basis, given the severe demographic crisis that the nation is facing,” Ms Kathy Matsui, chief Japan strategist at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg Television when asked about female participation in the economy.

The number of people of working age could fall by almost half to about 44 million by 2060, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research said.

Japan’s female representation in the Lower House of 9 per cent compares with nearly 19 per cent in the United States Congress, the Center for American Women and Politics said.

The percentage of female lawmakers in Japan’s Lower House reached a peak of 54 in 2009, when the Democratic Party of Japan wrested power from Mr Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. Women fare slightly better in the Upper House of Parliament, with 38 of 242 seats, or about 16 per cent.

Mr Abe’s efforts to promote women have not always met with success. He boosted his popularity by appointing a record-equalling five women to his Cabinet in a September reshuffle, only for two of them to resign within weeks amid alleged breaches of electoral law. Both female former ministers, Ms Yuko Obuchi and Ms Midori Matsushima, were re-elected as lawmakers on Sunday.

Mr Abe will probably keep his Cabinet unchanged following yesterday’s victory, NHK said yesterday, with an official announcement likely to be made on Dec 24, the Nikkei newspaper said. The current line-up includes four female ministers out of 19, or just more than 20 per cent. BLOOMBERG

More female lawmakers, but Japan"s Parliament still a man"s world