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| Photo taken in November 2019 shows Tomomi Inada (2nd from L), then executive acting secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, launching the party's Headquarters for Promoting Women's Active Participation. (Photo by=Kyodo) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana]A senior Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker has urged her party to squarely face the lack of female presence in Japanese politics, saying the country's democracy will remain biased without a higher number of women involved in decision-making at both the parliament and local assembly levels.
Former Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, who has made no secret about her aim of becoming prime minister, asserted that women are hardly represented in the Diet even though they make up half of the population and 40 percent of the LDP membership. "I saw faction politics suddenly taking center stage during the presidential race...but I found it quite peculiar that Mr. Suga, who belongs to no faction, was elected through the power of factions," Inada said.
During the LDP leadership race, a group of female lawmakers including Inada proposed to Suga and two other candidates that the winner add more women in the Cabinet and key party posts. Suga, however, only appointed two women to his Cabinet. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, 68, was the LDP's first-ever female candidate in the 2008 presidential election, but there has been no one to follow. Japan ranked 121st in the World Economic Forum's ranking on gender equality among 153 countries surveyed last year.
