Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, third from left in the front row, senior vice ministers and others pose for a group photo at the prime minister’s office on Sept. 15. (Koichi Ueda)

It appears a one-of-a-kind scale exists in Nagatacho, the seat of the Japanese government.

Referring to his reshuffled Cabinet last week, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida noted, “The right people are in the right places. I also created a balance across different age groups--mature, middle-aged and younger--and between genders.”

The word “balance” derives from the Latin word “bilanx,” which connotes “two plates.”

But not one woman was included among the new Cabinet’s 54 senior vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries. Asked to comment, Kishida said, “The appointments were made as a team.”

Assuming Kishida meant his choices should be seen from a broader perspective, I added the ministers and the advisers to the prime minister to the equation to examine the breakdown.

The male-to-female ratio was 71 to 7. The balance is very much tipped.

In sports, highly competitive teams have large numbers of reserve players who can substitute for those in the starting lineup.

When female lawmakers are few and far between, the only solution is to get more women to run for elected offices.

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), the first woman to become the British prime minister, was said to have remarked that in politics, one’s determination is more important than the ability to negotiate to get through each day.

A team will not become better unless it is raised with an iron will.

The nation’s future depends on the younger generation, but how are they represented in the new Kishida Cabinet? Of the 78 Cabinet members, only three are in their 30s.

The Cabinet’s balance across age groups is absent.

But perhaps that’s fine because Kishida must have adjusted the balance with “weights”--the intraparty “habatsu” factions to which the appointees belong and the number of times they have won elections.

In explaining his choices, Kishida said he held high hopes for his female ministers for their “womanly sensitivities and empathies.”

I just hope the five new female ministers will live up to their duties as individuals, never mind their gender.

In the first place, no one actually knows what sort of sensitivities Kishida wants his female appointees to manifest in matters of reconstruction and diplomacy.

Looking at a group photo of the new Cabinet members wearing ties and standing on the red carpet, I became worried anew about the prime minister’s sense of balance.

Perhaps the fulcrum of his scale is off-center.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 19

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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.