Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida banks on women to revive his fortunes

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida banks on women to revive his fortunes

Kishida’s public support is flagging amid concerns about sluggish wage growth and the rising cost of living.

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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida [front row, second right] and his new cabinet meet the press [David Mareuil/Pool via AFP]
By Hanako Montgomery
Published On 15 Sep 202315 Sep 2023

Tokyo, Japan – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has appointed five women to his cabinet, the highest since 2014, as part of a ministerial reshuffle he hopes will boost his poor approval ratings. One of the notable additions to the cabinet is Yoko Kamikawa, who became Japan’s first female Minister of Foreign Affairs in nearly two decades. “We would like to demonstrate Japan’s presence and build trust with our counterparts around the world,” she said on Thursday at her first press conference since taking office. She also said Japan would seek “responsible actions from China” and maintain conversations with its neighbour in an effort to improve their strained ties. The 70-year-old was previously Japan’s justice minister and oversaw the execution of significant figures within the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which was responsible for the fatal sarin gas attack on the Tokyo metro system in 1995.

Wednesday’s reshuffle comes as support for Kishida’s party continues to decline. According to an August Kyodo News poll, only 33.6 percent of Japanese citizens currently support the prime minister. Approval ratings have been falling since July 2022 and reached a low of 33.1 percent last December. Kishida is hoping that the appointment of more women will boost his support among more progressive and younger voters. Before Wednesday’s announcement, only two out of 19 cabinet members were female. Japan’s representation of women in politics is notably sparse in comparison with other countries, ranking 138 out of 146 nations for gender equality in politics, according to the World Economic Forum. “[It is] a small step in the right direction from a political party with a very poor record of female representation,” Jeffrey Hall, a special lecturer in Japanese Studies at Kanda University of International Studies, told Al Jazeera.

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The new minister in charge of children’s policies, Ayuko Kato, takes her oath at the Imperial Palace. She is one of a record number of women in Kishida’s cabinet [Imperial Household Agency of Japan/AFP]

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Hall noted that while appointing five women in top government positions was significant, it would not address the LDP’s wider problem of nominating and supporting male candidates over women. At the moment, the ruling party does not set quotas for female candidates, unlike rival parties such as the Japan Communist Party. As a result, the LDP gives preferential treatment to incumbents, a majority of whom are male. “As long as the institutional changes to actually increase the overall number of women within the party aren’t implemented, it is largely style over substance here,” said Hall.


Economic woes

More immediately, analysts doubt female representation alone will be enough to boost support for Kishida’s government over the longer term. New and significant policy changes are needed, they say. “Persistent issues such as inflation, the rising cost of living and the Fukushima wastewater release have exacerbated Kishida’s declining popularity,” Hajime Kidera, a politics professor at Meiji University, told Al Jazeera.

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Source: Al Jazeera

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/15/japans-prime-minister-fumio-kishida-banks-on-women-to-revive-his-fortunes