This study is, therefore, an attempt to unravel the major reasons behind women’s political under-representation in politics in Japan

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(1)Abstract Women in different regions of the world, have been seeking equal political opportunities where they can represent themselves by being involved directly in the decision-making process. Regardless of the strenuous efforts of the United Nations and many feminist organizations all over the world to provide women with more opportunities in politics, women are still grossly under-represented due to religious, cultural and societal reasons. Japan is not an exception, for, regardless of its technological development, Japan is still lagging behind not only the industrial democratic countries but the developing countries as well. The progress in achieving political equality for women in Japan has been very slow and even women who managed to acquire political positions were given peripheral roles. This raises the question of why women are still politically marginalized from participating in politics in an industrially developed country like Japan. This study is, therefore, an attempt to unravel the major reasons behind women’s political under-representation in politics in Japan. The study puts forward gender stereotypes, political culture and government recruiting policies as the main reasons behind women’s political under-representation. The first one is deeply entrenched in the structure of the Japanese patriarchal society, confining women’s roles within the framework of childrearing and household work. The second one is causally related to the first as, because of the surviving cultural stereotypes, women are still facing political marginalization because politics is considered as a male domain. As a. 1.

(2) result, even women who are in legislative positions are not able to shatter the glass ceiling of male dominance over political culture because their involvement in politics is still widely considered as a sort of tokenism rather than an actual representation. The third one is the recruiting policies of the government and political parties of female politicians based on their popularity rather than their qualifications and eagerness to act for women. Therefore, targeting the critical mass or descriptive representation of women in politics by following the same policies does not necessarily mean substantive changes for women in the society. This is because there are other reasons that influence the decisions of the women elected through such processes such as their interests, the degree of their willingness to represent women, and the policies and ideologies of their party of affiliation. In this case following the majority of the literature on politics that argues that descriptive representation is going to bring more positive outcomes for women in the politics is unlikely to produce the intended effect. This study, therefore, suggests two alternative solutions for a better political representation for women. The first one is from the perspective of institutional politics, which targets women who are willing to act for women and not utilizing gender discourses for their own advantage or in the service of substantive representation. By shifting the focus from descriptive to substantive representation, women are going to be positively represented regardless of their paucity. Adopting the theory of substantive representation as a major policy, will contribute in recruiting “feminist parliamentarians” instead of “female parliamentarians”. This will lead not only to a better political representation for women, but it will also contribute in correcting the negative 2.

(3) stereotypes related to female politicians in Japan caused by the presence of unqualified female parliamentarians and media’s negative portrayal of female politicians. The second alternative that this study raises is, women’s political activism in social movements. By analyzing the role of women’s coalitions such as, Mama no kai, AWC, WFNN in post-3.11 movements, anti-nuclear movement in particular, the study will address how women especially mothers and housewives were able to establish new forms of power that are different than the most widely recognized form of power, that is, “power over”. Instead, based on their strategies and the amorphous structure of the movement, they were able to transform the movement into a political arena where they call for their rights, and support feminist parliamentarians. Through analyzing the strategies of these coalitions, the study will provide a reassessment of women’s political empowerment through political activism and analyze the new forms of power exemplified in the forms of “power with,” “power to,” “power within,” and “power against.” It will thus show how being involved in the movement has contributed in creating a challenging power against the government so that they can influence politics without having a seat in the parliament. The study is divided into five chapters, the first is the introduction in which I address an overview of my argument, methodologies and theoretical framework, the second is concerned with the theoretical discussions that constitute the main framework of this study. The third focuses on the hurdles that women encounter in politics and the reasons behind their political-underrepresentation in the legislative bodies. The fourth is shedding light on media’s role in portraying female politicians and how this contributes 3.

(4) in strengthening the negative stereotypes related to female politicians in Japan. The fifth elucidates the relationship between women’s activism and political empowerment trying to re-conceptualize the term “political empowerment” through the activism of women’s coalitions in the anti-nuclear movement in Japan. The sixth chapter is the concluding remarks of this study. The study uses semi-structured interviews and participant observations for the empirical analyses in order to identify the main traits of women’s movements and the development of feminist theories from the 1970s until the present time. It also employs a historical approach to track the development of women’s political activism and its influence on the political legislatures. In addition, it compares between the objectives and characteristics of women’s movements from the pre-war era up until the current anti-nuclear movement, in order to know how women have shifted their strategies from interest politics to lively politics and re-conceptualized the term of “political empowerment”.. 4.

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This study is, therefore, an attempt to unravel the major reasons behind women&rsquo;s political under-representation in politics in Japan

This study is, therefore, an attempt to unravel the major reasons behind women’s political under-representation in politics in Japan