Japan Press Weekly

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2014 September 17 - 23 [POLITICS]

Women ministers increased, but it falls short of ‘society in which women shine’

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in his reshuffled Cabinet increased the number of female ministers to five as an example of his policy to “create a society in which women shine”. Experts, however, are increasing a sense of mistrust over the PM’s “women empowerment” policy.

As the major reason for the increase in female ministers, political scholar Igarashi Hitoshi said, “The Abe government acknowledged the need to take a position to address the issue of women’s insufficient participation in the society, even if it is a mere gesture.” “However, as shown in the fact that the women ministers are Abe’s royal political allies, the prime minister appears to be unwilling to tackle this serious issue,” Igarashi added.

Among the five women ministers, Arimura Haruko, Yamatani Eriko, and Takaichi Sanae, are all members of the parliamentarians’ group affiliated with Japan’s largest rightist group, Nippon Kaigi, to which PM Abe is serving as a special advisor. Nippon Kaigi firmly objects to the promotion of gender equality.

Arimura was given the ministerial post dealing with women’s empowerment. Abe created this post as the key part of his Cabinet reshuffle. On her website, Arimura has often shown her stance opposing a gender equal society and the legalization of the use of separate surnames by married couples.

Newly appointed National Public Safety Commission Chair Yamatani Eriko in November 2011 at an Upper House Budget Committee meeting attacked the government’s third basic plan for gender equality. Internal Affairs Minister Takaichi Sanae has attracted global attention by a photograph in which she appeared together with a leader of Japan’s major neo-Nazi group. In 2006 when Takaichi was serving as the minister for gender equality, she gave an unfavorable opinion of the term “gender-free”.

Women’s rights activist Shibata Masako, who heads the Federation of Japan Women’s Organizations (Fudanren), pointed out that Prime Minister Abe’s selection of the person resistant to gender equality as the women empowerment minister indicated that he is not serious about gender empowerment.

Shibata expressed her concern about the possibility that the presence of the three rightist female ministers would bring about negative impacts on the government proposed fourth basic plan for gender equality and remove the principles of gender equality and human rights from a draft bill for gender empowerment currently under discussion in the labor ministry’s labor policy council.