TOKYO (JAPAN) – In the backdrop of a sexism row triggered by Tokyo Olympics chief, who said women talked too much at meetings, the ruling party of Japan has urged more women at key discussions.
As per the plan proposed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, five female lawmakers should join the party’s key meetings as observers.
Toshihiro Nikai, the party’s 82-year-old secretary general, said on Tuesday that he was aware of criticism that the board is dominated by men, adding that the members are elected.
He said it is important for the female members of the party to “look” at the party’s decision-making process.
“It is important to fully understand what kind of discussions are happening. Take a look, is what it is about,” Nikai said.
The Nikkei reported that female observers cannot speak during the meetings, but can submit opinions separately to the secretariat office.
Head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic organising committee Yoshiro Mori stepped down last week after derogatory remarks about women speaking too much at meetings stirred a hornet’s nest in Japan and abroad.
The remarks made by the 83-year-old former prime minister demonstrate how deep-rooted sexism is in Japanese society.
Out of 153 countries on the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap Index, Japan is ranked 121st, scoring poorly on women’s economic emancipation and political empowerment.
This week, some female lawmakers of the Liberal Democratic Party requested Nikai to increase the ratio of women in key party positions.
Mandating that female observers at meetings have to remain quiet has invited criticism.
While opposition parliamentarians slammed it as a “field trip”, Twitter users said the party’s male-centric view has still not changed despite the controversy.
“People will just put women on them as a kind of PR exercise,” Belinda Wheaton, a cultural sociologist at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, said.
“I think it’s probably time to be asking questions as to why it is that we feel that men in their 70s or 80s are able to fulfil these roles better versus a man in their 40s or 50s, or a woman,” Wheaton said.