So Japan has a female pm now for the first time in history. Oh, finally people are going to stop complaining that Japan is run by old men! Look, a woman is a prime minister now, sexism is no more!
I personally have a lot of problems with it, and as someone who happens to be very left-leaning, I'm not happy about it at all.
One of the most common comments I hear is "oh, so a woman became a prime minister, but you feminists are still complaining". Yes. We are. So let's talk about LDP and their... er... fair treatment of women.
This article, written only 4 years ago, talks about LDP finally allowing more women to attend meetings as long as they're silent, because according to Yoshi Mori, meetings attended by "talkative" women tend to "drag on". In 2023, approximately 20% of their members opposed a female PM (if you think that's little, it's 2 for every 10 people). And a survey in 2023 showed that LDP was the only party that the amount of people who opposed allowing dual surnames for married couples was more than those who supported it. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
Criticism of Japan's obvious mistreatment of women not only in politics but in many social aspects will not be erased just because one conservative woman became the PM.
Now that's out of the way, why am I not happy about Takaichi? Because honestly, just when finally Japan has the chance to move on from the Abe era, we ended up getting right dragged to it.
Takaichi Sanae is known for her revisionist take on history, which I'm sure someone devled much more into detail, and her conservative views such as being anti lgbtq rights or rights that advance gender equality. But you know, hurray! Economy. She's doubling down on almost everything that made Japan the way it is, so I really don't think economy will get any better. Sorry to burst the bubble.
In general, I think a lot of young people are not into politics. I tried getting into Japanese politics and care more, but I stopped because I realized a lot of people here just didn't care. Instead I try to support groups and people who push for social change and are open minded.
In general, I'm usually more up to date with middle east politics, which are much more extreme than whatever Japan has going on.
Economy 🥺
ReplyDeleteWho are all these conservatives? Abe was conservative? He reaised everyone's taxes, forced the my number system on us all, for life, and expanded government in every possible way! That isn't conservative at all! I will give this new PM the benefit of the doubt, but when the sales tax goes to 15% we will know the Abe Era is back.
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