, associate professor of political science at 黑料不打烊’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, shared her thoughts below on Japan’s general election results. Her research focuses on Japan, gender, and political economy. If you’d like to schedule an interview with her, please reach out to Vanessa Marquette, media relations specialist, at vrmarque@syr.edu.
Margarita Estevez-Abe
She writes: “Japan鈥檚 ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has suffered its worst electoral losses since its defeat in 2009. While much of the news coverage has focused on the LDP鈥檚 unpopularity in the face of corruption and the inflation and now will focus on whether Prime Minister Ishiba will be able to hold onto his power, Sunday鈥檚 election marks a fundamental change in Japanese society. For much of the postwar period, Japan has been ruled by a small class of male conservative politicians. This ‘Old Japan’ has prevented a ‘New Japan’ from emerging.
The LDP鈥檚 defeat brought hopeful news to those who had been wishing for greater political representation of women.聽 The record number of female candidates were fielded (342) and elected (73) mostly thanks to the progressive opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), which emerged as a formidable opposition force winning 148 seats relative to the LDP鈥檚 191. The CDP has been promoting female candidates in local elections and has been playing a critical role in making more conservative parties like the LDP field more women in response.
The CDP is one of the successor parties of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the only opposition party every to unseat the LDP in a general election since its founding in 1955. The breakup of the DPJ in 2017 had paved the way for the LDP鈥檚 electoral dominance. Most Lower House seats are allocated by a winner-takes-all rule, which has benefitted the LDP, the only large party, facing a fragmented opposition
There was, however, a silver lining.聽 Since the breakup, CDP has shared the support from the organized labor with another successor party to DPJ, the Democratic Party for the People (DPP). CDP has pursued a strategy to cultivate women鈥檚 talent becoming much more women-friendly party than its predecessor, DPJ. In this process, it has morphed into a party that resembles European center-left parties鈥攁 kind of party that did not exist in Japan before. The CDP has been fielding women in local elections and recruiting competitive female local politicians. It represents the values of a ‘New Japan’ that the long rule by the LDP stifled. In urban Japan, many Japanese voters and politicians are eager to legalize same sex marriage, to let women retain their maiden names after marriage, and to allow Princess Aiko to succeed her father. The local councils in Tokyo reveal the character of this New Japan: women, transgender, and naturalized citizens all serve as elected representatives. The LDP has been like a heavy chain wrapped around the neck of this New Japan not letting it assert itself. The CDP still does not have a majority in the 465-person Lower House, which has the prerogative to elect the next Prime Minister. However, a New Japan finally has a chance to challenge the Old Japan.”
