Photo/Illutration The Ishiba Cabinet includes two women: Junko Mihara, second from left on third row, minister for policies related to children, and education minister Toshiko Abe, second from right on second row. (Naoko Kawamura)

The Ishiba Cabinet, which features only two female ministers, indicates the new prime minister attaches a low priority to gender-equality policies, critics said.

Shigeru Ishiba, president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, inaugurated his Cabinet on Oct. 1 after he was elected prime minister at an extraordinary Diet session.

Junko Mihara, 60, minister for policies related to children, and education minister Toshiko Abe, 65, are the only women in the 20-member Cabinet.

“I was not surprised because the composition faithfully reflects the percentage of women among LDP Diet members, which is just more than 10 percent,” said Ayano Sakurai, 29, who operates Gencollege, a program where young people study gender-related issues.

“I do not believe that a Cabinet can solve social challenges when it is heavily skewed in terms of age and gender and lacks diverse perspectives,” Sakurai said.

The average age of the ministers is 63.6 years old, compared with 61.8 for the original Kishida Cabinet that was formed in October 2021.

In policy proposals for the LDP leadership contest, Ishiba pledged to “promptly and significantly” improve the gender gap index, which stands at the bottom of industrialized democracies.

“The prime minister can decide Cabinet appointments at his or her discretion,” Sakurai said. “Ishiba may have had to give deference to many people, but he would have made a different choice if he had understood the need to increase the percentage of women.”

The largest number of female ministers in a Cabinet was five.

Junichiro Koizumi appointed five women, including land minister Chikage Ogi and environment minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, when he formed his Cabinet in 2001. Kawaguchi later served as foreign minister under Koizumi.

Fumio Kishida matched the record when he reshuffled his Cabinet in September 2023.

Sakurai also said that female perspectives are essential for Ishiba’s priority policy of regional revitalization.

“It is doubtful whether the prime minister is trying to do something about the outflow of young women, a pressing issue for local governments around the country,” she said. “I hope he will make serious efforts to incorporate the voices of women and young people.”

Mitsuko Uenishi, a professor of labor issues at Hosei University, said she is focusing on the capabilities of Cabinet appointees and their portfolios, rather than the number of female ministers falling from five to two.

Uenishi said when the Ishiba Cabinet is seen from that perspective, she does not expect it to advance gender policies--even if the prime minister personally supports them.

“The Cabinet lineup indicates that it is not placing much importance on this issue,” she said.

Uenishi has been trying to make Diet deliberations more visible to voters by holding “public viewing” events on streets.

“It is important to scrutinize not only the words of the leader but also the personnel appointments to implement policies and the power relationships within the organization that support the leader,” she said.

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