Paper short abstract:

At the Local Elections in 2019, the first nation-wide ones after Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in Politics, the proportion of women recruited by political parties, almost leveled off. This paper discusses how women become candidates inside/outside political parties in Japanese local elections.

Paper long abstract:

Women in political leadership positions are underrepresented both at the national and local levels in Japan, though the government has adopted measures, which aim to promote gender equality in a wide range of fields including politics. The Third Basic Plan for Gender Equality in 2015 has set numerical targets for women's participation in the national political fields with a 30 percent quota for election candidates of members of the Lower and Upper Houses by 2020. The Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field in 2018 (Gender Equality Act 2018) requires political parties to strive to allocate male and female candidates for elections of the members of the Diet and local assemblies. However, the percentage of female candidates for the latest General Election of the Lower House and the Unified Local Election is only 17.7 percent and 16.6 percent respectively. This paper is asking for the reasons why so few women could be recruited as candidates for the national and local elections. It particularly focuses on the Unified Local Elections in 2019, which were held as the first nation-wide ones after Gender Equality Act 2018. At the local assembly membership elections, the percentage of women recruited by major political parties, with a few exceptions, almost leveled off, though the number of female candidates increased at all levels. On the other hand, women's groups and female local politicians that empower women to be candidates through seminars or training programs are more active. These women's movements have led women to run successfully in the districts where there had been no or few women elected before. This paper is also looking for ways how new political schools for women are fostering women in leadership positions in local politics and differences between the new and traditional types of political schools for women.