ABSTRACT
Women account for only 14.3% of the members of Japan’s national parliament, known as the Diet – women members comprise 9.7% and 23.1% in the Lower and Upper Houses, respectively. Japanese women hardly have their voices heard in politics. An initial requirement for Japanese women’s representation is therefore to improve descriptive representation to reach at least a critical mass. Since the First World Conference on Women in 1975, Japanese government has enacted five women-friendly laws, namely the Act for Proportional Opportunity between the Sexes in Employment in 1985, the Basic Act for Gender Equality Society in 1999, the Act for Preventing Domestic Violence in 2001, the Act for Promoting Active Working Life of Women in 2015, and the Act for Promoting Gender Equality in Legislatures in 2018. Men have far fewer chances to become aware of gender concerns than women not only because of their gender but also because they are rarely discriminated against on the grounds of their gender.
