I hope that Japan will soon become a place where people are not surprised when a woman becomes a president.

We might hope so. It's over to you, Ms Tottori. But anyone – even women and minorities – who reaches a senior position ends up reflecting the values of the organisations that they succeeded in and research shows they rarely challenge the culture in which they prevailed.

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Well - - it will depend on WHO that woman will be.

Hopefully someone whose neurons are firing with greater efficiency than the current leader.

HO HUM

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I hope that Japan will soon become a place where people are not surprised when a woman becomes a president.

Hear, hear.

Japan still has a long way to go on equality, but it's slowly and surely getting there. The current younger generation is a world away from the Showa-ojisan that are now, thankfully, retired or almost retired, and I'm sure they'll bring in a better future for the country.

It is getting there but wow, it has taken so long.

The old dinosaurs have started to die out, but they will be replaced by not so old dinosaurs......but it is definitely getting there.

The younger ones, in spite of Japan's education system, have finally started to see the light.

There will be many more women presidents before there is a woman Prime Minister.

I am sorry to read with what contempt the generation which has made Japan into such a successful country is being treated in the responses. I was working in Japan from 1966 through 1969, when the economic boom just started. I met such great people during my stay in Japan. Whether a woman would be so much better than a man seems to be seen. In Germany, we had no such luck with Mrs. Merkel.

Maybe times have changed in almost 60 years, Mari.

Well, it is a country that is always surprised when they see a foreigner hold a chopstick really well!

Here in New Zealand, there was no difference. Jacinda screwed up, just as her predecessors or her successors did. Oh sure, it was a success...

Well, given that everyone screws up or adds some percentages of success, regardless, it won't matter what the gender is.