by CATHERINE MAKINO
Japanese Parliamentarian Kuniko Tanioka. PHOTO/Foreign Policy in Focus
Japanese politics is still an Old Boy’s club, according to Kuniko Tanioka.
She should know.
Tanioka has been a member of the country’s Diet, or national legislature since 2007, in addition to being president of Japan’s Shigakkan University at Obu City in Aichi prefecture.
“If you visit the Diet and you are a newcomer, you will have a hard time finding a women’s washroom, “she said in a recent interview in Tokyo. “That’s because the building was built when women didn’t even have the vote and there were no women in the building. Women’s facilities were slowly introduced as women were starting to be incorporated in this ‘village,’ though men didn’t like the idea of female Diet members. They wanted to hold on to their positions and prestige.”
As a sign of the Diet’s male bias, Tanioka points to the high number of politicians’ sons among the 148 relatives holding seats in the 480-member lower Diet.
“If you want to talk about male chauvinists, just see the way these male politicians look to their sons, and not their daughters,” Tanioka said.
While an occasional daughter or granddaughter does hold a seat in the Diet, she said that is more the exception than the rule.
“We [in politics] are a reflection of the entire Japanese society in its entirety,” Tanioka said. “The only way to change this is if women become aware of the situation. That is what will open the doors.”
A women’s group, the non-partisan All-Japan Obachan Party, has been working for over a year to do just that.
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