Photo/Illutration Members of a citizens’ group that called for revisions to a law to promote gender parity in elections sit in on a Lower House plenary session on June 10 to see the revised law enacted. (Sawa Okabayashi)

A revised law to promote gender parity in elections was enacted on June 10 to prevent sexual and maternity harassment, which has created a major barrier to women aspiring to run for office. 

The law is expected to take effect on June 16. It urges political parties as well as the central and local governments to take measures to prevent sexual and maternity harassment.

Many female election candidates and legislators have been victims of these types of harassment from voters and other legislators, but Japan has no law to protect them from such improper behavior.

The legal revision will add a new provision to prevent any problems arising from sexual remarks or unwanted physical contact as well as insensitive comments and actions concerning pregnancy and childbirth.

The provision calls on not only the central government but also local governments to take measures, such as conducting educational training on the issue and providing consultations for victims, since local assembly members have more often been subject to sexual and maternity harassment.

Women account for a little more than 20 percent of Upper House members and occupy only around 10 percent of seats in the Lower House. The figure for local assemblies also stands at roughly 10 percent.

The law, which took effect in 2018, urges political parties to try as much as possible to field equal numbers of male and female candidates for national and local elections.

It also calls for political parties to set targets for ratios of women among their candidates, but it is not mandatory to do so.

Though an initial attempt to make it a legal requirement failed, some people still welcome the new provision on measures against sexual and maternity harassment as the issue continues to torment many female election candidates and legislators.

Aiko Usui, 30, is a first-term member of the Kita Ward assembly in Tokyo. When she began giving campaign speeches in front of a train station for the assembly election, one man showed up every time to take pictures of her and send them to her social media account.

At first, she told the man “thank you” to avoid getting into trouble with voters. But his behavior escalated. He got angry at her for not contacting him and began attacking her on social media.

Another man who worked as a volunteer during her election campaign followed her all the way to her home and pestered her to have tea with him.

“I’ve suffered such harassment countless times,” Usui said.

She said she moved to a new place for the sake of her safety. She had an account on the Line messaging app to interact with residents of the ward, but had no choice but to close it after receiving a number of annoying messages.

In a survey by the Cabinet Office, some 60 percent of female local assembly members said they have faced some sort of harassment from voters and fellow assembly members.

Mari Hamada, a researcher at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo, surveyed 60 male and female local assembly members this spring about their experiences of being harassed.

“Harassment of assembly members has remained unregulated,” said Hamada. “It’s a big step forward that the law stipulates local assemblies should tackle the issue.”

(This article was written by Sawa Okabayashi and Akira Minami.)

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