Women and Political Inequality in Japan: Gender Imbalanced Democracy

Abstract

Women and Political Inequality in Japan: Gender-Imbalanced Democracy explores the causes of female political underrepresentation in Japan. As the author rightly notes, this puzzle has become increasingly perplexing as Japan’s comparative performance in terms of female representation in national legislatures has continued to decline, with Japan falling from 79th out of 177 countries in 1997 in terms of female representation to 165th out of 193 countries in 2019, according to the Inter-parliamentary Union (5, 183). That is, while many countries have taken on the UN’s call to increase female representation (in all sectors), Japan’s actions as well as its inaction in some areas have led to comparative decline as the lowest ranking OECD country in terms female representation (5). As the book’s subtitle implies, and its introductory chapter argues, the significance of the lack of progress is that gender inequality in the political realm impedes democracy. Eto asserts, ‘improving women’s legislative status will strengthen Japan’s democracy by transforming it into a more open and inclusive sphere of politics’ (11).