- Convenors:
-
Elena Korshenko
(Freie Universität Berlin)
Stefanie Schwarte (LMU Munich)
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- Chair:
-
Jaemin Shim
(Hong Kong Baptist University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Politics and International Relations
Short Abstract
In view of persistent concerns about gender inequality, this panel examines who represents women’s interests in Japan, how these interests are construed, and what institutional constraints, incentives, and penalties the actors promoting women’s representation face.
Long Abstract
Despite the growing salience of gender inequality in Japan, much of the debate continues to focus on descriptive underrepresentation of women and state-led policy initiatives to advance their economic and political participation. Less attention has been paid to how gendered representation is produced, constrained, and strategically negotiated within political institutions themselves. Across parliamentary and local arenas, political actors bear different ideas of women’s interests and face uneven incentives when engaging with them. Addressing gender equality is not politically neutral: some issues, like rights in marriage and gender quotas, are institutionally marginalized, while others are discursively reframed to align with dominant priorities of economic growth or demographic sustainability. Moreover, advocating for women’s interests can carry reputational or career risks. Understanding these dynamics is essential to grasp the mechanisms hindering gender equality advancement in Japan.
This panel conceptualizes women’s political representation as a set of practices shaped by gendered institutional constraints rather than normative commitment alone. Bringing together analyses of parliamentary speech, policy discourse, legislative careers, and local executive leadership, the panel examines who represents women’s interests, how these interests are articulated, and under what conditions such engagement is rewarded, penalized, or strategically managed. The panel offers a comparative perspective on women’s representation across different levels of governance and contributes to broader debates on gender, institutions, and political agency.
Accordingly, the first paper in the panel employs quantitative analysis of parliamentary speeches to assess how and by whom women’s interests are articulated within the historically male-dominated legislature. The second paper applies the problem-representation approach to a specific issue of separate spousal surnames to reveal how women’s rights are framed and problematised in the Diet deliberations and party proposals of the 2020s. Probing for the consequences of women’s representation, the third paper draws on the bill co-sponsorship and post-allocation records to explore how gendered policy engagement shapes career trajectories of legislators. The fourth paper turns to female mayors as highly visible local executives, examining with original interview data how they navigate gendered expectations in campaigning and governing, and how visibility functions both as a constraint and a strategic resource in local leadership.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
Drawing on bill co-sponsorship data and official post-allocation records, this study investigates how active engagement in the legislative representation of policy areas associated with women shapes the career trajectories of Japanese legislators within party and government hierarchies.
Paper long abstract
This study investigates how sustained commitment to the representation of women intersects with political career trajectories of legislators in Japan. On the one hand, policy domains associated with women and feminine qualities, such as child- and elderly care, women’s safety, and gender equality, are frequently embedded in institutional hierarchies that assign them lower prestige, fewer resources, and limited access to valuable networks and posts. Moreover, certain policies related to women challenge entrenched gender norms, exposing their proponents to potential backlash from conservative voters and party gatekeepers. Female legislators, as the key representatives of women’s interests, may be disproportionately disadvantaged in this respect. On the other hand, Japan’s demographic decline, labour shortages, and changing family structures have increased the relevance of policy areas related to women. Some studies further suggest that gender role-congruent behaviour, aligning with normative expectations about appropriate political roles for women, may be seen favourably by voters, enhancing perceived expertise of female politicians and opening inroads for them in politics.
Engaging with these competing perspectives, this study enquires whether lawmakers dedicated to the legislative representation of women’s interests experience different patterns of career advancement than those who do not, and whether female politicians face distinct incentives or constraints. To explore these questions systematically, it draws on the Diet bill co-sponsorship data between the 1998 and 2024 elections to identify the legislators most active at advancing women’s interests through lawmaking. These data are combined with official records on post allocation and portfolio assignments to trace politicians’ career development over time, based on their gender and policy focus. By examining legislators’ career outcomes, this study explicates how Diet institutions and party hierarchies shape the incentives for women’s representation in Japan, offering additional insights into the persistent gap between social demands and slow political reform.
Paper short abstract
This paper analyzes Diet debates and party proposals on Japan’s surname system in the 2020s, focusing on the selective separate surname system. Applying the WPR approach, it traces competing problem representations and examines whether and how they invoke and constitute women’s rights and interests.
Paper long abstract
Debates over allowing married couples to retain separate surnames (fūfu bessei) remain a recurrent issue in Japanese politics. This study analyzes how the “problem” of Japan’s current surname system, which requires married couples to share a single surname, is represented in Diet deliberations and in party policy proposals and discussions, with a primary focus on the 2020s. It pays particular attention to whether and how women and women’s rights and interests are invoked—or not—within these texts. At the same time, the study examines how “women’s rights and interests” are constituted within competing representations of the policy problem. Rejecting the assumption of fixed or homogeneous “women’s interests,” it treats interests and rights-claims as objects of political contestation. What comes to count as “women’s interests,” and which rights are framed as requiring protection or advancement, can vary across actors and may reflect competing priorities.
Building on Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach, I analyze selected Diet debates and party proposals related to surname policy from the 2020s. The analysis asks: (1) What is the “problem” represented to be in these policy texts? (2) What presuppositions or assumptions underlie these representations? (3) What is left unproblematic or taken for granted? and (4) What effects are produced by these problem representations? In addressing these questions, the study specifically interrogates whether and how women’s interests and rights are invoked and constituted within each analytical stage—from the initial framing of the “problem” to the underlying assumptions, the silences, and their effects.
By unpacking these representations, the paper aims to clarify the gendered dynamics of contemporary policy debate over surname policy in Japan and to contribute to political science research on how gender equality is articulated, constrained, or marginalized within policy debates. The analysis may also shed light on why the introduction of a selective dual-surname system has remained stalled since the early 1990s, despite international pressure and shifting domestic public opinion
Paper short abstract
In this paper, we address gendered patterns of parliamentary speech in Japan's National Diet. We find that speeches by female MPs tend to be shorter but more progressive than those by male MPs. Proportion of female MPs has a marginal effect on speech length, suggesting no institutional effect.
Paper long abstract
How are women's interests represented in highly male-dominated legislatures? Do female representatives still advocate for women's issues when they are surrounded by male parliamentarians? In this paper, we address these questions by analyzing the patterns of parliamentary speeches in Japan's National Diet, a historically male-dominated institution. Using the entire corpus of the parliamentary speeches from 1947 to 2023, we identify the extent of gender speech gap at the individual and institutional level. We report three major findings. First, ceteris paribus, female MPs were likely to deliver shorter speech than their male counterparts. Male politicians, especially the prime minister, tend to take the lead in addressing women's issues on the parliamentary floor. Second, the proportion of female legislators has little significant effect on increasing the volume of speech by female MPs, suggesting no institutional effect. Finally, when discussing women's issues, women legislators tend to talk more about gender egalitarian issues, while male legislators were more likely to frame women's issues in terms of economic growth and national security. These findings suggest that gender speech gap may have a substantial influence on how women's issues are framed and discussed in the parliament.
Paper short abstract
Female mayors in Japan occupy highly visible yet exceptional positions. This paper examines how they navigate gendered expectations in local executive office and manage visibility as both a constraint and a strategic resource in campaigning and governing.
Paper long abstract
Women remain significantly underrepresented in Japanese politics, particularly in executive leadership positions. As of 2025, only 4.1 percent of municipalities are headed by a female mayor. While this figure has increased slowly over the past two decades, female mayors continue to occupy highly exceptional and therefore highly visible positions within local political contexts. This paper examines how female mayors in Japan navigate this heightened visibility and how it shapes their representative practices.
Building on debates on descriptive, substantive, and performative representation, the paper examines how female mayors frame their political roles and negotiate gendered expectations in both campaigning and governing. Rather than evaluating whether female mayors pursue distinct policy agendas or claim to represent women as a specific constituency, the analysis focuses on how they articulate a universalistic representative role while simultaneously navigating their heightened visibility as women in executive office. It further explores how female mayors relate to so-called “women’s issues” and how gender operates as a symbolic resource, a constraint, or something to be strategically downplayed.
The paper draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted in Japan between 2023 and 2024, including semi-structured interviews with seven incumbent female mayors, participant observation of election campaigns, and analysis of campaign materials, local media coverage, and official communications. The paper highlights variation in how mayors manage visibility depending on career background, local political environment, and media attention. While some emphasize gender explicitly to signal change and mobilize support, others deliberately try to avoid gendered stereotyping. By analyzing visibility as both a burden and a strategic resource, the paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of political representation beyond the parliamentary arena. It demonstrates how gendered representation is actively negotiated in local executive offices and how institutional contexts shape women’s political agency beyond the central government.