ABSTRACT
This chapter separates the Heisei era into three epochs to characterize the degree of e women's descriptive and substantive representation, paying particular attention to women's leadership in promoting gender equality. The ‘decade of advancement’ (1989–1998) began when the Socialist leader Doi Takako won the Upper House election together with nine newly elected women. This ‘Madonna boom’ signalled a new era of women's leadership, which had significant implications for the development of gender equality policy during the Heisei era. The epoch was then replaced by the ‘decade of stagnation’ (1998–2008) due to a backlash against the progressive policy changes of the previous decade. Although women continued to make inroads in politics, many of them were recruited by powerful male leaders like Koizumi Junichiro or Ozawa Ichiro, thereby limiting the capacity and willingness of women MPs to act upon the interests of women. The following decade (2009–2020) can be termed the ‘decade of awakening,’ as it was characterized by the revival of women's activism in the face of contradictions that Prime Minister Abe's ‘womanomics’ diplomacy posed.
