International: 104th time’s the charm

Among the many captivating entries in the diary of Murasaki Shikibu, the 11^th century Japanese author, is a plaintive one. “If only you were a boy,” she writes, quoting her father. Women have forever vexed Japanese society, eliciting ridicule, rage, and retribution for any deviance from norms established by men. Much of it has been captured in academic and popular culture: the travails of an early 19th century woman who rejects domesticity; the weaponised paranoia engendered by “sexually deviant” women with “large vaginas” as Japan stands on the cusp of democracy; and their tribulations after the second world war. 

21st century Japan isn’t much different. The country is in the bottom quartile of female political representation globally; among OECD nations, it’s one of the worst performers in female workforce participation, leadership roles, and the wage gap. That’s why the elevation of Sanae Takaichi as Japan’s first female prime minister, after 103 male leaders, is a big deal. Takaichi was elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) earlier this month but her ascension to the top job was in jeopardy following a bitter split with the Komeito party, the LDP’s decades-old coalition partner. After an uncertain few weeks, another party filled the void to ensure Japan kept its tryst with destiny.

Will Takaichi usher in a more equal society? Some 13 Asian nations from Pakistan to the Philippines have had female leaders but nearly all rank low on global gender indices. Apart from Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, the remaining dozen are dynasts propelled by the deaths of famous fathers or husbands, not gender-equality agendas. Few advanced women’s causes. Takaichi, by contrast, triumphed in a bruising intra-party contest against four men.

But any expectations of a new feminist wave in Japan will be misplaced. Takaichi’s 18-member cabinet has only two other women, partly reflecting Japan’s dire parliamentary skew—16 percent female representation versus 27 percent globally. The new PM is “someone who expresses ‘old man’ opinions from a woman’s mouth and makes them happy,” Mieko Nakabayashi, professor at Waseda University, told Bloomberg. Among those opinions is an aversion to work-life balance and an opposition to married couples having separate surnames for fear that family values will fray. Many, including Sylvia Lim, chairperson of Singapore’s Workers’ Party, feel that saddling women with the task of achieving equality is itself a gendered expectation. 

Progressives have other concerns too. Takaichi is an arch-conservative who has downplayed Japan’s second world war crimes, and repeatedly, defiantly visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan’s war dead, including convicted criminals. Previous visits from Japanese leaders have angered China and South Korea, both of whom suffered unspeakable horrors under the occupation. Takaichi opposes same-sex marriages and makes unverified claims to inflame support amongst anti-immigrant groups, mostly young men. The LDP’s coalition with the liberal Komeito party fractured partly because of these reasons; its new partner, the Japan Innovation Party, is more ideologically aligned. For now, it seems the progressives’ solace is in style sans substance: a woman with a love for heavy-metal, a passion for drums, and a fondness for motorbikes sits atop an orthodox society.