Bittersweet Suga: Shinzo Abe wanted Japanese women to ‘shine’ in politics. What happened?

Name: Yoshihide Suga set to become Japan’s next prime minister after winning ruling party leadership
Uploaded: 2020-09-13T04:00:17.000Z
Duration: 4 min 20 s
Description: Yoshihide Suga set to become Japan’s next prime minister after winning ruling party leadership

Japan’s outgoing prime minister once championed ‘womenomics’, but as he departs the race to succeed him – led by Yoshihide Suga – is a very male affair

While there are high-profile women politicians, such as Tomomi Inada, Seiko Noda and Yuko Obuchi, a glass ceiling prevents them reaching the top spot

Reading Time:5 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he wanted women ‘to shine’. Photo: AFP

Julian Ryall

Published: 12:00pm, 13 Sep 2020Updated: 10:47pm, 12 Oct 2020

Like every political leader since Ito Hirobumi became Japan’s very first prime minister in 1885, the next leader of this nation will be a man. And that, say women, is a disappointment given how much outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe insisted that he wanted Japanese women to “shine”.

The winner of the ruling party’s election for president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will be announced on Monday, with chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga very much the front runner after gaining the support of around 80 per cent of the party’s politicians, including Abe.

Suga, former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba and Fumio Kishida, head of the party’s policy council, have this week been communicating their ambitions for the nation should they be elected, with the economy, dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and relations with Japan’s neighbours the key talking points of their campaigns.

Precious little time has been devoted to the role of women in society and the closely related – and, ultimately, existential – issue of a falling birth rate and a rapidly ageing population.

And that is precisely why a new perspective, a female perspective, is required, women say.

04:20

Yoshihide Suga set to become Japan’s next prime minister after winning ruling party leadership

“When Abe first said that he wanted Japanese women to ‘shine’, I immediately thought what an odd word to choose,” said Mieko Nakabayashi, who was a politician with the opposition Democratic Party of Japan and is now a professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University.