Japan Press Weekly

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2021 April 7 - 13 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Shii and Kurabayashi send messages in solidarity to celebrate 75th anniversary of Japanese women's suffrage

An online talk festival celebrating the 75th anniversary of Japanese women's suffrage took place on April 10.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo and JCP Kurabayashi Akiko in charge of the party's gender equality commission sent messages in solidarity to the commemorative event.

Shii pointed out that more than one million women part-time workers lost their jobs during the pandemic, according to a recent survey by the Nomura Research Institute, and that many women non-regular workers in the restaurant, retail, and hotel industries are falling into poverty. He expressed his determination to support those who are struggling hard and work to eliminate gender inequality in jobs in cooperation with a wide range of people. He said that he will work even harder to open the way to realizing the introduction of a selective separate surname system, legalizing same-sex marriage, and revising the current Penal Code in order to eradicate sexual violence.

Shii said that eight out of the 25 women in the Diet in Japan are JCP members, and that the JCP is planning to field women candidates to constitute half of JCP candidates in the upcoming general election. He also said that the party will make efforts to increase the number of women members from the current eight out of 26 members in the JCP Standing Executive Committee, the party's everyday decision-making body.

Kurabayashi noted that Japan ranks 166th among 193 countries in the percentage of women parliamentarians, according to a survey by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). She said, "The climate in prewar and wartime Japan was based on paternalism and patriarchy which proclaimed that 'women should not have a say in matters of importance and should walk three steps behind men'. The women at that time were forced to remain silent. After the end of WWII, Japanese women gained the right to vote under the postwar Constitution and have since been fighting for their empowerment." She said that she, as a member of the party with its Program calling for true gender equality, will exert herself to the utmost to achieve victory in the upcoming general election.