Japan’s ruling party wants women – not their views – at meetings

Under the new proposals, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will allow five female legislators to join the party’s main meetings as observers.

Toshihiro Nikai, the party’s secretary-general, said on Tuesday that he had heard criticism that the party’s board was male-dominated.

He noted that the board members were elected, but said it was important for the party’s female members 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 at a news conference late on Tuesday.

The female observers will not be allowed to speak during the meetings, but will be able to submit opinions separately to the secretariat office, the daily newspaper Nikkei reported.

Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic organising committee, resigned last week amid worldwide outrage over derogatory comments he made about women, claiming they spoke too much at meetings and made them too long.

The 83-year-old former prime minister’s remarks highlighted deep-rooted sexism within Japanese society.

Japan is ranked 121st out of 153 countries on the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap Index – the worst among advanced countries – scoring poorly on women’s economic participation and political empowerment.