(Bloomberg) — Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba more than halved the number of women in the cabinet, an indication that increasing female representation in key policymaking positions is likely not one of his top priorities.
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Ishiba unveiled his cabinet on Tuesday, naming only two women out of 19, and in relatively low-profile roles. Junko Mihara will oversee policies on children and Toshiko Abe will take charge of education, science and culture.
Ishiba’s predecessor Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had appointed five women to ministerial roles, including the foreign affairs and economic security portfolios. While low by international standards that was a record for Japan.
The drop in the number of female cabinet members is a discouraging development for a country that languishes low on lists of female representation in positions of authority. Japan ranks 118th among 146 nations in the World Economic Forum’s gender equity rankings, with particularly low scores for political and economic participation.
The deciding vote for head of the ruling party on Friday pitted Ishiba against Sanae Takaichi, raising the prospect of Japan getting its first female leader before the US. That result would have been a significant milestone for showing women can reach the highest echelons of power in Japan.
The resulting lack of female members in Ishiba’s cabinet adds to the disappointment for those hoping the latest leadership race would deliver progress for women’s representation. Japan is yet to have a female finance minister, or central bank governor.
The new cabinet also shows less diversity in age. While Kishida’s cabinet had two ministers in their 40s, Ishiba’s team is predominantly older. The average age of cabinet members including Ishiba remains at 63.5, making it one of the oldest among nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development.
Ishiba announced an almost exclusively male leadership lineup for his Liberal Democratic Party on Monday.
“The LDP must be reborn as a party that women, men, and young people will want to join,” Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, the new head of the LDP’s election strategy said on Monday. The party says it aims to have women make up 30% of its lawmakers within the next decade, but that goal appears distant given the proportion was just 11.8% as of last year.
The new prime minister is set to call a general election for Oct. 27.
–With assistance from Yuki Hagiwara, Paul Jackson and Alastair Gale.
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