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© 2015 AFPOnly 4 women elected mayor in local elections
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© 2015 AFP
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Himajin
How many positions there are tells us nothing. How many women ran?
Scrote
Given that so many seat went uncontested it appears that women are just as apathetic as men.
Jrw1202
In Ikebukuro there were almost 30 candidates and half of them were women. In Toshima, there were about 20 and I think 7 of them were women.
MiceVice
Almost half of the candidates for CPJ were female (as disclosed on their website), for example. I think it's also telling how many/few women candidates there are per political party or per town/city. To become a candidate you need the local voter body's endorsement. We can only speculate why there are so few women candidates in some areas/parties, but this fact combined with the data on women's position in this society (number of female managers, CEOs, assembly members, in high income brackets, judges, percentage of female workforce, percentage of married women who are working, etc.) is not worthless.
some14some
exactly, all i know through foreign media is that DPJ won two mayoral seats and voters turnout was lowest.
Wc626
Guess the cosplay nurse gimmick didn't swing the tides.
MiceVice
Forgot to add the link for Japan communist party's website where they inform that 46.5 percent of their candidates were women. http://www.jcp.or.jp/akahata/aik15/2015-04-05/2015040501_03_1.html
Michael Hart
Great Job Saito Rie san
LFRAgain
I'm inclined to agree with Hamajin. How many women candidates actually ran? This is the salient data, not simply that only 4 women won seats.
That more than a third of the positions up for grabs weren't even contested speaks more to a general malaise over the state of politics in Japan than anything else.
Democracy only works if there are positive outcomes that can be readily experienced by the electorate in return for their active participation. If, however, each election only results in business as usual, with the usual suspects continuing to rake in wealth and power, while the rest of society languishes on the wrong side of an ever-widening income divide, then it's little wonder no one gives a damn about the elections anymore. Nothing ever changes.
Himajin
If all the women who ran won, or 90% of the women who ran won that would tell us that people are very open to women in pubic positions, if so many won from such a small candidacy. If 100 women ran and only four elected, that tells you something else. '222 positions and only 4 women elected' is indignation-bait.
DaDude
If Hillary wins, Japan will jump on the women bandwagon guaranteed just like they jumped on DPJ after Obama won.
Wc626
Exactly DaDude. No doubt Japan will embrace Hillary. Its amazing how influential US politics sways the hearts & minds of others.
ADK99
Knowing the number of women who ran is not particularly helpful. If only 4 women ran, and all 4 won, then the questions remain - why do so few women feel that they can participate in politics?
SenseNotSoCommon
The obvious solution is for Abe to put his money where his Womenomics mouth is. Boost the number of women in the LDP's ranks, and crap on the party's misogynists from a great height.
Then we'll see representation in other parties move closer to that of CPJ.
onagagamo
More than I expected.
Pukey2
Abe will be pleased with this result