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Paper short abstract:

While structural and cultural barriers continue to restrict women’s political careers in Japan, local assemblies have seen an increase in female politicians. This paper investigates if and how female politicians, specifically in declining rural areas, reproduce or contest patriarchal structures.

Paper long abstract:

Structural and cultural barriers continue to restrict women’s political careers in Japan. More than a decade since the Japanese government announced the goal to reach a quota of 30% of female assembly members, women were still vastly underrepresented in 2021. However, the share of female representatives in municipal assemblies (15.4%) was significantly higher than in prefectural assemblies (11.8%) or the national Diet (9.9% in the Lower House). While this might indicate change at the grassroot level, higher levels of female representation are mostly an urban phenomenon, while city, town and village assemblies in rural areas still fall behind. In 2021, 275 out of 1,741 local assemblies had no female assembly member at all. Even though electoral competition in smaller municipalities might be lower, few women decide to run for office and become candidates; even fewer are successful in the elections.

How does this urban-rural divide affect local politics? An increase in female representation is often understood as an indicator of a subsequent increase in gender equality and could be the key to make way for more innovative policies needed to tackle problems such as depopulation, aging society as well as the ongoing health crisis which are prevalent in most rural municipalities in Japan. Yet being a woman does not necessarily translate into a more liberal political orientation, and not all women in political offices try to challenge the status quo. Especially in rural areas, where the conservative LDP continues to endorse many candidates who are officially running as independents, it can be hard to disentangle the agendas of candidates and the LDP. Against this background, this paper uses qualitative methods (interviews, candidate manifestos) to investigate if and how female politicians in local assemblies reproduce or contest persisting patriarchal structures in Japanese local politics. I am especially interested in how female politicians tackle the challenge of “revitalizing” socio-economically declining municipalities by emphasizing their female perspective. On the one hand, this can give legitimacy to their candidacy. On the other hand, however, embracing a “revitalization” platform might also reproduce existing political structures, including conservative gender roles.