March 9, 2023

On March 8, International Women’s Day, a civil group working to enhance women’s participation in politics held a rally in the Diet building for the introduction of a quota system to increase women’s representation in politics.

Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission Chair Tamura Tomoko (House of Councilors) and JCP Upper House member Iwabuchi Tomo participated in the rally.

As of the end of 2021, in local assemblies, women accounted for 11.8% of assembly seats at the prefectural level and 15.4% at the city, town, and village levels. Among 1,741 municipal assemblies, 275 or 15.8% have no women members.

Tamura said that of 1,367 JCP candidates who will run for this April’s nationwide simultaneous local elections, 566 or 41.4% are women. When looking at JCP candidates for prefectural and major city assembly elections, women made up 47% of JCP candidates.

Tamura expressed her determination to put a stop to the Kishida government’s huge military buildup with a JCP victory in this spring’s nationwide local elections. She added that an increase in JCP seats in local assemblies will be a driving force in people’s movements calling for the introduction of a selective dual-surname system and the legalization of gay marriage, which will lead to the promotion of respect for family diversity and individual dignity as well as gender equality.