Women and the 2014 Lower House Election

Abstract

Female candidacy in the 2014 lower house election was similar to past years. Moreover, the percentage of women elected only increased from 7.9% to 9.5%, despite the government’s emphasis since 2010 on the goal of increasing female participation in the civil service sector, business, and politics. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has frequently referenced the goal of increasing female leadership in management and politics to 30% by 2020. He even included a record tying five females in his second cabinet (although two female cabinet ministers had to resign shortly after their appointments due to questionable campaign and finance activities). Women also figure prominently in the third arrow of Abenomics, structural reform (see Noble, this volume). Specifically, Abe has emphasized the need for changes in workplace policies that will “create a society where women shine.” The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) also highlighted women prior to the election, verbally committing to investigate an internal party quota for female candidates in early fall 2014. Neither party, however, managed to increase female candidacy (in any appreciable sense) in the 2014 lower house election. This chapter explores the effects of the electoral system and the snap election on female candidacy to explain this discrepancy between pre-election rhetoric and the reality of female participation in Japanese politics.