

Of these 186 candidates, 45 were elected, constituting 9.7 percent of the 465 seats in the lower chamber. In the 2021 Japanese general election, less than 18 percent of candidates (186 out of 1051) for the House of Representatives were women. As of 2019, Japan ranks 164th out of 193 countries when it comes to the percentage of women in the lower or single house. However, when it comes to women's representation in politics, Japan remains behind other developed democracies as well as many developing countries. In general, the proportion of female legislators in the House of Representatives has grown since the reform. In 1994, Japan implemented electoral reform and introduced a mixed electoral system that included both single-member districts (SMD) using plurality and a party list system with proportional representation. Proportion of women in Japan's national parliament, 1997–2020 There also exists a wage gap between full-time and irregular workers despite the rising percentage of irregular workers among women. However, women remain economically disadvantaged as a wage gap remains between full-time male and female workers. Another round of revision in 2006 also prohibits job requirements that disproportionately advantage one gender over another, or indirect discrimination. The law was revised in 1997 to be more comprehensive, prohibiting discrimination in recruitment and promotion as well. In 1986, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law took effect, prohibiting discrimination in aspects like dismissal and retirement. Other postwar reforms opened education institutions to women and required that women receive equal pay for equal work.

This allowed them greater freedom, equality to men, and a higher status within Japanese society. A subcommittee including two women, Beate Sirota Gordon and economist Eleanor Hadley, were enlisted and assigned to writing the section of the constitution devoted to civil rights and women's rights in Japan. As the new de facto ruler of Japan, Douglas MacArthur ordered the drafting of a new constitution for Japan in February 1946. Women were given the right to vote in 1945, after the Japanese surrender in WWII. Another strong stereotype about Japan is that women always stay in the home as housewives and that they do not participate in public life: in reality most women are employed – the employment rate of women (age 15–64) is 69.6% (data from OECD 2018 ). Īlthough Japan remains a socially conservative society, with relatively pronounced gender roles, Japanese women and Japanese society are quite different from the strong stereotypes that exist in foreign media or travel guides, which paint the women in Japan as 'submissive' and devoid of any self-determination. Lebra's work has been critiqued for focusing specifically on a single economic segment of Japanese women. In these interviews with Japanese families, Lebra found that girls were assigned helping tasks while boys were more inclined to be left to schoolwork. Self-reliance of women was encouraged because needy women were seen as a burden on others. Lebra's traits for internal comportment of femininity included compliance for example, children were expected not to refuse their parents. Courtesy, another trait, was called upon from women in domestic roles and in entertaining guests, extended to activities such as preparing and serving tea. Tidiness included personal appearance and a clean home. Modesty extended to the effective use of silence in both daily conversations and activities. In interviews with Japanese housewives in 1985, researchers found that socialized feminine behavior in Japan followed several patterns of modesty, tidiness, courtesy, compliance, and self-reliance.
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ĭuring the Meiji period, industrialization and urbanization reduced the authority of fathers and husbands, but at the same time the Meiji Civil Code of 1898 (specifically the introduction of the "ie" system) denied women legal rights and subjugated them to the will of household heads.


In the 17th century, the " Onna Daigaku", or "Learning for Women", by Confucianist author Kaibara Ekken, spelled out expectations for Japanese women, stating that "such is the stupidity of her character that it is incumbent on her, in every particular, to distrust herself and to obey her husband". Yanagiwara Byakuren, a poet and member of the imperial family.įrom the late Edo period, the status of women declined.
