Photo/Illutration A female candidate in the unified local elections last month

Alarmed by the abysmal scarcity of women in politics, a university professor and others held the first-ever series of seminars in the spring of 2018 to train women considering a political career.

At the time, female lawmakers accounted for only a little over 10 percent of local assemblies.

The inaugural seminar, which called for gender equality in politics, was attended by 27 women, mostly in their 20s and 30s.

They were all too familiar with the difficulties of being a woman--subjected to sexual harassment at work, the loneliness of raising their kids without support from their male partners, making do on a low income and so on.

There were five two-hour sessions in all that were held on weekday evenings after school or work.

During the lead-off session, the participants talked about their pet policies, but the expressions they used tended to be overly abstract, such as “a society without disparities” and “building the town of one’s dreams.”

But their language became much more “substantial” after former local assembly members who were invited as instructors urged the women to study law and learn to speak more precisely and persuasively.

In the final session, every member gave a mock speech explaining their policies with confidence.

In fact, some of the instructors were deeply impressed by one woman’s idea of using social media to support victims of sexual crimes and another idea about utilizing vacant homes for women who need assistance with raising their children.

One participant left a deep impression on me when she said, “I learned that if I want to change politics, I need to start in the local assembly. That was a real eye-opener.”

Women made advancements as candidates in the latter half of the unified local elections last month. For the first time, women captured more than 20 percent of municipal assembly seats, and even a majority in four municipal and ward elections.

One of the winners was an alumna of those seminars from five years ago. Seeing her name brought back memories of their late-evening public speaking practice sessions.

Though there are more women in local assemblies now, progress is still slow.

In the first half of the unified local elections, which consisted of gubernatorial and mayoral elections, the winners were all male.

Japan passed its Candidate Gender Parity Law five years ago, but the political parties have been slow to act. They really need to take action rather than simply continue talking about it.

The great majority of women who attend training seminars, or “political training schools,” are without what the Japanese call “jiban, kanban, kaban,” which stand for “local support organizations, name recognition and campaign funding.”

But I believe it is time for Japan’s election culture to be transformed into one that gives a fair fighting chance to everyone, even if they have none of these things or were not born into a political family.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 2

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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