The Fort Worth Press - Japan's record number of women MPs still minority

USD -
AED 3.673005
AFN 68.386442
ALL 93.021933
AMD 389.349314
ANG 1.803734
AOA 913.000031
ARS 1002.721397
AUD 1.53358
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.702057
BAM 1.854577
BBD 2.020785
BDT 119.602116
BGN 1.858799
BHD 0.376916
BIF 2956.030306
BMD 1
BND 1.344124
BOB 6.930721
BRL 5.790848
BSD 1.000863
BTN 84.433613
BWP 13.672612
BYN 3.275301
BYR 19600
BZD 2.017372
CAD 1.39639
CDF 2864.999911
CHF 0.88374
CLF 0.035265
CLP 973.069559
CNY 7.241401
CNH 7.24719
COP 4396.59
CRC 508.251983
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 104.558213
CZK 24.0877
DJF 178.22092
DKK 7.087555
DOP 60.364405
DZD 133.750861
EGP 49.678296
ERN 15
ETB 124.782215
EUR 0.950275
FJD 2.269701
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.791103
GEL 2.740301
GGP 0.789317
GHS 15.887842
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000247
GNF 8627.008472
GTQ 7.726299
GYD 209.391416
HKD 7.782965
HNL 25.291226
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.472895
HUF 390.756993
IDR 15903.25
ILS 3.732285
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.493503
IQD 1311.043259
IRR 42092.505939
ISK 138.290123
JEP 0.789317
JMD 158.639851
JOD 0.709302
JPY 154.656495
KES 129.249619
KGS 86.506766
KHR 4038.536303
KMF 467.499881
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1398.125025
KWD 0.30759
KYD 0.834076
KZT 497.17423
LAK 21976.521459
LBP 89633.50686
LKR 291.187013
LRD 181.150969
LSL 18.152914
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.883414
MAD 9.998293
MDL 18.214834
MGA 4685.233124
MKD 58.48862
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.024142
MRU 39.785889
MUR 46.412517
MVR 15.460006
MWK 1735.461174
MXN 20.325297
MYR 4.464971
MZN 63.950307
NAD 18.152914
NGN 1680.590024
NIO 36.829479
NOK 11.03348
NPR 135.09167
NZD 1.703345
OMR 0.385001
PAB 1.000778
PEN 3.7981
PGK 4.029035
PHP 59.039501
PKR 278.226704
PLN 4.126669
PYG 7838.117183
QAR 3.649699
RON 4.729799
RSD 111.205995
RUB 101.000437
RWF 1380.157217
SAR 3.754257
SBD 8.355531
SCR 13.619994
SDG 601.497088
SEK 11.030315
SGD 1.343699
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.575045
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.975839
SRD 35.43028
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.757041
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.142596
THB 34.647019
TJS 10.658746
TMT 3.5
TND 3.159078
TOP 2.342102
TRY 34.465475
TTD 6.776157
TWD 32.567494
TZS 2652.359028
UAH 41.269214
UGX 3693.413492
UYU 42.784805
UZS 12854.406494
VES 46.433371
VND 25422.5
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 622.001915
XAG 0.032192
XAU 0.000375
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.761528
XOF 622.001915
XPF 113.087675
YER 249.924998
ZAR 18.116198
ZMK 9001.198706
ZMW 27.697968
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    59.6900

    59.69

    +100%

  • CMSC

    -0.0450

    24.52

    -0.18%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0800

    6.61

    -1.21%

  • RIO

    -0.0400

    62.39

    -0.06%

  • GSK

    -0.1100

    33.35

    -0.33%

  • SCS

    -0.0200

    13.07

    -0.15%

  • BP

    -0.0100

    29.08

    -0.03%

  • RELX

    -0.1800

    45.11

    -0.4%

  • NGG

    -0.3100

    63.27

    -0.49%

  • AZN

    -0.6000

    63.2

    -0.95%

  • CMSD

    -0.0836

    24.26

    -0.34%

  • BCC

    -0.7700

    137.41

    -0.56%

  • VOD

    0.0200

    8.94

    +0.22%

  • BTI

    0.1500

    37.08

    +0.4%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.23

    -0.23%

  • BCE

    -0.3100

    27

    -1.15%

Japan's record number of women MPs still minority
Japan's record number of women MPs still minority / Photo: © AFP/File

Japan's record number of women MPs still minority

New lawmaker Saria Hino takes her seat on Monday as one of a record number of women in Japan's parliament, but while campaigning ahead of the recent election, a voter asked her: "Who's looking after your children?"

Text size:

The mother-of-four was among 73 women elected to the 465-seat house of representatives in October's vote -- the most ever, but still a small minority at 16 percent.

Having won in central Japan's Aichi region, the 36-year-old is on a mission to "deliver a message from the front lines" of those raising children or caring for the elderly.

"The responsibility for children's growth should not lie solely on their parents' shoulders," said Hino, who was elected to the opposition Democratic Party for the People.

"I want to develop policies based on the overwhelming amount of information I have -- personally -- of what's going on" at preschools and nursing homes, she told AFP.

Japan has the world's second-oldest population after Monaco and its birth rate has been stubbornly low for decades.

There are a range of factors why women are choosing to have fewer children, including rising living costs and expecations that working mothers should still shoulder the domestic burden, child raising and caring for relatives.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, expected to lead a minority government after a parliament vote on Monday, has called the dearth of new babies a "quiet emergency" and has pledged to promote measures such as flexible working hours.

His predecessor Fumio Kishida also sounded the alarm on the looming demographic crisis, expanding parental leave policies and financial aid for families.

While the number of preschools is rising in Japan, workforce shortages mean difficult working conditions for nursery teachers, Hino said.

"Similarly, a recent government decision to lower funding for elderly care facilities is worsening caregivers' already tough work environments" she said, warning that they risk closure.

- Sexist jibes -

Women leaders are rare in politics but also in business in Japan, which ranked 118th of 146 in the 2024 World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report.

Veteran female lawmakers, such as former ministers Seiko Noda and Seiko Hashimoto, have highlighted the difficulties of being a mother and an MP in a parliament where debates often run on until nearly midnight.

Women made up just a quarter of candidates in the election and can still openly face sexist jibes.

Former deputy prime minister Taro Aso this year called then-foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa a "rising star" but also described her as an "aunty" who was "not that beautiful".

And one in four female electoral candidates said they faced sexual harassment during their campaigns, according to a 2021 cabinet office survey reported by local media.

- Lack of diversity -

Sachiko Inokuchi, a 68-year-old doctor elected in a Tokyo district, said her opposition Japan Innovation Party has set up a babysitting service for lawmakers to help improve the gender imbalance.

She wants to strengthen support for mothers in Japan, as "I don't want to pass on the unwanted effects of a rapidly ageing society with fewer children".

Ishiba's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition party lost their majority for the first time since 2009 in the October 27 election.

One LDP lawmaker who won a seat was Jun Mukoyama, who faced the same question on the campaign trail over who was looking after her child -- "a question a male candidate wouldn't be asked," the 40-year-old told AFP.

She spent 13 years at a trading house but quit in her early 30s when she moved to the United States for her husband's work, while the couple was having fertility treatment.

"At that time, I thought, 'if I can never have a child, I want to make a society that is great for children'," and decided to become a politician, she said.

She was attracted to the LDP's "pragmatic security policy and proven capability of running the government".

But she felt the party "lacked diversity" in its policy-making, something she wanted to help change.

Mukoyama said her priority as a lawmaker was revitalising Japan's depressed, depopulated rural communities.

But, like Hino and Inokuchi, she also wants to ensure the voices of people "facing the difficulties of juggling work and family" are heard.

M.Cunningham--TFWP