Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
about to begin speaking, a woman in the audience shouted informally
'
Gam-
batte
(do your best!) in a motherly tone, as if this were a personal gathering
of friends rather than part of a run for national election. Everyone laughed.
The next male candidate was struggling slightly with getting all the polite
phrases out fast enough and a couple of times he stumbled over his words,
upon which someone again shouted
'
s great amuse-
ment. The atmosphere was joyous, friendly and less formal than any political
gathering on this scale that I had been to before. Pledges were made to work
for the people in the spirit of the founder of the party (Ikeda Daisaku), which
was mentioned twice by Hamayotsu. By this, as she stressed, she meant to
continue to strive as the advocate of ordinary people. The atmosphere
reminded me of a Women
'
Gambatte
'
to everyone
'
s Division Soka Gakkai meeting: full of enthu-
siasm, funny and quite informal despite the size of the gathering. Then again,
the women present were likely mostly Soka Gakkai members who regarded
the founder of the party as an inspiration to work for the common good; they
saw little controversy in a religious leader being invoked as inspiration for
their political action.
A few days after this event, I had lunch with a lecturer from Soka Uni-
versity near Hachioji Station. I asked him if he agreed with my impression
that female politicians from Komeito seemed unpretentious, down to earth and
just happy to do their job. He agreed and said that this was due to their
greater feelings of sincerity. He outlined how he thought the level of satisfaction
was di
'
erent for men and women.
Men reach satisfaction when they are promoted or receive recognition for
something that they may have been striving for, for
ve or ten years,
which may include having worked hard in a job they dislike. They may
have been putting up with a whole lot of frustration and boredom and
hardwork to
finally get a promotion or a pay rise. For those women who have
been mainly housewives and are used to being part of the community,
caring for their family and friends is what gives them satisfaction; they
get recognition for what they do on a regular basis, which has nothing to
do with promotion. They may therefore have di
erent capacities, and be
less concerned with promotion and recognition as they are used to
nd
immediate satisfaction in what they do for others.
The lecturer continued:
Men are likely to be the ones who support their family
financially,
whereas women do not have this pressure and therefore experience more
psychological freedom. This means they can enjoy what they do more
than their male counterparts.
What these female politicians had been doing so far in their role as house-
wives and leaders in Soka Gakkai might not carry the same status as a paid
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