She Beat the Odds to Upend a Male Political Dynasty in Japan
Hanako Okada was one of 73 women to win seats at the general election last month, a record number in a Parliament long dominated by men.
By Motoko Rich and Kiuko Notoya
As a candidate for a party in opposition, she was facing an incumbent from the party that has ruled Japan for all but four years since 1955. His grandfather, father and brother had all held seats in the prefecture before him. Ms. Okada, 44, was a political novice and a virtual stranger to locals in Hirosaki, the city in Aomori Prefecture on the northern coast of Japan’s main island that she had left more than a quarter century earlier to attend college.
Among democratic nations, Japan has one of the most abysmal records of giving women political power: Before a general election late last month, women held just over 10 percent of seats in the lower house of Parliament, putting the nation at 163rd out of 183 countries in the proportion of women in its national legislature, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a Swiss-based organization.
“I think everyone was thinking somewhere in their hearts that it would be impossible,” Ms. Okada said during an interview last week in a conference room at the telecommunications business in Hirosaki owned by her mother.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/world/asia/japan-women-politics-election.html