In January 2022, women held 9.7% of the seats in Japan’s lower house. The upper house figure was 22.9%. Japan was the lowest among G7 members in the lower chamber, while the United States stood at 27.3%.
Across the G7, only Japan and the United States have no binding gender quotas for legislative elections. The average lower-house share for the other five members was 35.1%. Globally, women held 26.4% of lower-house seats that same month, up from 13.5% in January 2000. The Gender Quotas Database counts 129 countries that use some quota for national or local elections.
Japan’s Gender Parity Law was enacted in 2018. Drafted by an all-partisan parliamentary group, it encourages political parties to field an equal number of men and women candidates. A 2021 amendment added sexual harassment prevention measures. A binding target was left out. The idea was dropped after resistance from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, although few legislators openly claim there are already enough women.
The principle-policy puzzle
A study in Politics & Gender examined why some voters want more women in parliament yet still oppose quotas. Mari Miura, Kenneth Mori McElwain and Tomoki Kaneko ran an original survey in Japan, where women’s underrepresentation is especially pronounced.
The researchers identified two factors. First, modern sexism. People who believed women are underrepresented because they are not interested in politics were less likely to back quotas. Those who thought quotas would increase the number of unqualified women candidates also tended to oppose them. That belief was tied to quota opposition especially strongly.
Second, views on state intervention. Respondents who opposed government involvement in gender affairs were more likely to reject quotas. Since quotas affect candidate nominations, some citizens see them as an intrusion on civil liberty. These patterns held even among people who wanted more women in the legislature. The authors described the disconnect as the “principle-policy puzzle.”
The article appeared online on 20 December 2022 in Cambridge University Press’s Politics & Gender, volume 19, issue 3. The journal issue is dated September 2023, pages 781 to 805.
What moves opinion
What shifts attitudes, the authors argue, is not preaching gender equality. It is correcting misperceptions about structural barriers and the benign consequences of quotas. They point out that quotas actually increase the number of qualified women who run for office.
In a 2022 survey of lower house Diet members, 1.5% of men and 0% of women said gender parity already existed.
