"Farewell to Male-dominated Politics"

April 11, 2023

It has become common knowledge that there are few women in the political arena. It may seem surprising, but it has only been in the last three to four years that the lack of female legislators has become a major topic of discussion. Since then, I have been repeatedly asked in many interviews, "Why are there so few female politicians?", "What is the problem with having so few?", "What are the benefits of increasing the number of female legislators?", and "How can we increase them?" Therefore, I wrote this book to answer these questions collectively and to share data and knowledge that many people can utilize.

The word "women" does not appear in the title of this book, which elucidates the structural background and problems behind the small number of female legislators. The reason I chose "Male-dominated Politics" for the title is that the lack of women is often trivialized as a problem only for women, or the argument is shifted to suggest it is a problem on the women's side. The essence of the problem is that men monopolize power, and unless this is broken, the number of women will not increase, and even if it does, it will not lead to meaningful change. I chose this title to shift the focus from women's issues to the issue of male-dominated politics.

There are also men who object to the fact that only men monopolize politics. Therefore, the project to transform male-dominated politics is by no means for women alone. There are not a few women who are integrated into male-dominated politics and wish to maintain it. It is not a structure of men vs. women.

What I emphasized in this book is that increasing the number of female legislators is only a "passing point." If we mistake increasing the number of women for the ultimate goal, we may end up only increasing the number of female legislators who serve to reproduce male-dominated politics.

First, I want people to perceive the distortion of politics monopolized by men as a flaw in democracy. And that distortion also manifests in policy. I do not believe that an economy where women are deprived of opportunities to demonstrate their abilities and are regarded only as cheap labor can develop. The legal foundation for gender equality is weak in Japan. Other negative legacies of male-dominated politics can be seen throughout Japanese society. Please read this book for details. And I want you to feel that change is possible.

"Farewell to Male-dominated Politics"

Mari Miura

Iwanami Shinsho

304 pages, 1,078 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and job titles are as of the time of publication.