Womanhood in Japan (May 2023)

This column rounds up Japanese news related to women’s daily experiences of sexism here and considers what we can do to increase the pace of change.

Local elections mark a turning point in female representation in politics

Evidence that Japan is changing for the better emerged from a swath of local elections held right at the end of April in which record numbers of female candidates were elected. A record seven women were voted in as mayors in smaller cities, while in Tokyo, three women were elected as heads of wards, bringing the total to a record six. At least four local assemblies saw more women elected than men, and two elected an equal number of men and women.

The success followed an increase in the number of women running for office, which in turn follows the 2018 enactment of the Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field, which asks political parties to ensure that the numbers of male and female candidates that they field in parliamentary and local elections are as equal as possible, as the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper puts it.

One of the women who ran for election in Tokyo, Ai Ishimori, told the Guardian newspaper that she did so after deciding that she could do a better job than current politicians, most of whom are old men. “There is a gender gap in Japan in every area of life, and especially in politics. But there is a solution – more female politicians,” she said.

It’s going to take a while. Although the percentages of women who won in prefectural and municipal assembly elections reached record highs, they were still low, at 14% and 22%, respectively. And the ratio of women in the national House of Representatives is less than 10%, but the ball has started rolling. Women are now seeing politics as a place where they belong, and with enough women in the driver’s seat, Japan will change direction. It’s a long road, with abuse and sexual harassment of female candidates a common occurrence along the way.

This shows that where space is created for women to participate and succeed, they will. It makes the case for gender quotas for all jobs, if not for final appointments, then at least at the candidate level.

It makes you wonder how much faster Japanese politics would change if the Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field was enforced.

Japan OKs oral abortion pill for the first time, but sets high barriers

At the end of April, the health ministry approved an oral abortion pill for the first time in Japan. It approved a two-step treatment of mifepristone and misoprostol made by British firm Linepharma. This comes 35 years after the abortion pill was first approved in 1988 in France and is now being used in more than 65 countries.

This would appear to be a big deal in a country like Japan that currently only allows surgical abortion. It even still uses curettage, which removes tissue from the uterus using a metal instrument and is consequently more likely to damage the uterus. The World Health Organization has been calling for an end to its use, calling it “obsolete.” But the lack of autonomy and access for women in the way the abortion pill is being legalized means that Japanese women may just continue ordering the drug online from overseas, instead.

The price in Japan is set at the same as that of a surgical abortion – 10,000 yen. That compares to a price of around 780 yen recommended by the WHO. The justification of the high cost is the requirement that the pills be given only by doctors accredited by medical authorities as abortion providers, in case the pill does not work correctly and medical treatment is required. Also, contrary to WHO guidelines, many such providers still ask for the partner’s approval to carry out an abortion.

In an editorial, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper points out that rather than making the abortion pill conform to Japan’s current, dated abortion laws, those laws should instead be reviewed to change the base assumption that surgical procedure is the only available method of abortion.

The law is also criticized for making some cases of abortion illegal. It is allowed when the physical or financial costs of a pregnancy are deemed too high, but it means stigma is still attached to getting an abortion.

What do we need to change these laws? More female politicians – and fast.

Government expected to recommend gender quotas at companies

Various reports have been bubbling up about plans to introduce gender quotas at companies. In the latest, Nikkei Asia reports that a Cabinet Office panel is set to propose that the government urge companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s leading Prime market to appoint at least one female executive by 2025.

This follows earlier reports that Prime Minister Kishida instructed ministers and experts at a meeting on gender equality to prepare a plan to have women fill at least 30% of executive posts at companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime Market by 2030.

Only 11.4% of executives at major listed companies in Japan in 2022 were women, according to a Cabinet Office survey.

Other than setting a short-term numerical target, how this goal will be achieved is yet to be determined. It is part of “this year’s version of the government’s policy to empower women and promote gender equality,” the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. And there’s the rub – we’ve heard this before.

In December 2020, the government of then Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga postponed the goal for having women in at least 30% of leadership positions by the end of that year because it decided the target was nowhere near being achieved. The goalpost was shifted to “as early as possible during the 2020s,” because nothing says “we’re serious” quite like an around-about date does.

The target date of 2020 was set in June 2003, during the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

So, short of crossing our fingers on this issue – which appears to have been the government’s plan on gender equality for the last two decades – what can we do to help change happen?

Well, we can support companies that have female executives, are offering real career paths for women and giving women the same pay and opportunities as men. Companies that are doing well in these stakes, such as Kao and Shiseido, are already reporting such information. From April 2023, the Financial Services Agency is requiring larger Japanese companies to report gender pay gaps among their employees  and that listed companies disclose the ratio of women in managerial positions in their annual financial statements. So that will give us some guide.

Meanwhile, in the tradition of change in Japan being triggered from outside, the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, has told Nikkei Asia that it will vote against all-male board nominations at Japanese firms in which it invests.

National gender inequality hampers women’s brain development

Researchers from Kyoto University reported this month on the results of a study they were involved in that found that country-level gender inequality harms women’s brains. Scientists compared data from MRI scans of healthy men and women in 29 countries to a combination of the Gender Gap Index and the Gender Inequality Index and found that women in countries with greater gender inequality have thinner right-hemisphere brain cortexes than men. No practical difference was found in nations with high gender equality.

Thinning in the areas of the brain that were affected is associated with the experience of stress, depression and trauma.

The study says that exposure to an adverse environment and the experience of stress throughout life may cause these changes in brain structure. “Gender inequality is associated with worse mental health and academic achievement in women,” it says.

Japan ranked a low 116 out of 146 nations in the Global Gender Gap Index 2022.

This makes it clear just how detrimental gender inequality is. And despite our best efforts as individuals, if we don’t change society, the damage persists. So, what you can do to make society more equitable. Perhaps you could run for office.