Joe Renzi on Japanese Female Politicians
01/17/17 20:28
Joe sends in this fascinating reflection!
National Public Radio: Women Are Making Their Voices Heard In Male-Dominated Japanese Politics
Review By Joe Renzi
The other morning I heard a podcast on National Public Radio that caught my attention because it focused on many of the topics covered in the book, Perfectly Japanese, by Merry White. In the podcast, NPR reporter, Elise Hu, pointed out some of the struggles that Japanese women have faced in the workforce because of social hierarchy, limited daycare options, and cultural pressure to remain subservient to men.
I think it is duplicitous that the Japanese government claims that it wants to see an increase in the number of women in management posts. But, on the other hand, it doesn’t seem to want to impose the progressive measures or commit the resources to allow women to more readily pursue leadership opportunities (business, government, higher ed) outside the home. In fact, government shies away from lots of meaningful steps to improve the lives of Japanese women, and, indeed, government agencies generally overlook discrimination against women by allowing antiquated, hierarchy laws to stand and tolerating public gender-slamming. It seems pretty clear that discrimination against women, particularly in the workforce, hinders Japan’s ability to reach its targets for women managers.
Additionally, the NPR podcast introduced three Japanese women who overcame barriers to reach high-ranking political offices. One of these, Renho Murata, is the first woman to lead the opposition Democratic Party in Tokyo. I would like to thank Professor Alexy for finding additional articles about Renho (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/world/asia/japan-renho-murata-democratic-party.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renhō ). Renho’s accomplishment is especially noteworthy because she withstood discrimination first as a woman and second as a person of mixed racial heritage (her mother is Japanese; her father is Taiwanese). Renho’s heritage and her associated dual citizenship issues became a big point of contention in the political arena. (When she was younger, Renho mistakenly missed her opportunity to declare her citizenship status as Japanese only.) Renho’s opponents used her later repudiation of sole Japanese citizenship to call into question her fitness to have a place in Japanese government. I think these articles are interesting because the topics of mixed ancestry, and of Japanese nationalism and allegiance leads us back, in a way, to our discussion of family in Japan.
National Public Radio: Women Are Making Their Voices Heard In Male-Dominated Japanese Politics
Review By Joe Renzi
The other morning I heard a podcast on National Public Radio that caught my attention because it focused on many of the topics covered in the book, Perfectly Japanese, by Merry White. In the podcast, NPR reporter, Elise Hu, pointed out some of the struggles that Japanese women have faced in the workforce because of social hierarchy, limited daycare options, and cultural pressure to remain subservient to men.
I think it is duplicitous that the Japanese government claims that it wants to see an increase in the number of women in management posts. But, on the other hand, it doesn’t seem to want to impose the progressive measures or commit the resources to allow women to more readily pursue leadership opportunities (business, government, higher ed) outside the home. In fact, government shies away from lots of meaningful steps to improve the lives of Japanese women, and, indeed, government agencies generally overlook discrimination against women by allowing antiquated, hierarchy laws to stand and tolerating public gender-slamming. It seems pretty clear that discrimination against women, particularly in the workforce, hinders Japan’s ability to reach its targets for women managers.
Additionally, the NPR podcast introduced three Japanese women who overcame barriers to reach high-ranking political offices. One of these, Renho Murata, is the first woman to lead the opposition Democratic Party in Tokyo. I would like to thank Professor Alexy for finding additional articles about Renho (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/world/asia/japan-renho-murata-democratic-party.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renhō ). Renho’s accomplishment is especially noteworthy because she withstood discrimination first as a woman and second as a person of mixed racial heritage (her mother is Japanese; her father is Taiwanese). Renho’s heritage and her associated dual citizenship issues became a big point of contention in the political arena. (When she was younger, Renho mistakenly missed her opportunity to declare her citizenship status as Japanese only.) Renho’s opponents used her later repudiation of sole Japanese citizenship to call into question her fitness to have a place in Japanese government. I think these articles are interesting because the topics of mixed ancestry, and of Japanese nationalism and allegiance leads us back, in a way, to our discussion of family in Japan.