Women, social change and realising political ideals - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 142

social security bene ts and little job security compared to their better-paid,

full-time, usually male colleagues. Although managerial track positions have
opened up to women, little has been done to improve the working conditions
for mothers and the percentage of female managers is still only 10%. 3 On the
other hand, this situation gives women more

flexibility and freedom from
having to work overtime so that they can combine work with childcare
(Matsunaga 2000). For the politicians, they had first proved themselves in

as sengy - shufu and community workers. However, as suggested
by LeBlanc (1999), the housewife platform from which to launch their poli-
tical career may be particularly useful given the wider perception and experi-
ence of many women in Japan.
Being a sengy -

their ' career '

in society contains a strong sense
of a particular gender- and middle class-speci

shufu or a ' professional '

c position from which women
can regard the nature of their citizenship and from which they subsequently
enter the public sphere. Often notions of suitable feminine behaviour may
have made it di

cult to act upon newfound constitutional rights that women
have enjoyed in the post-war era. Politically, women have continued to be
addressed in gender-speci c ways; the katamaru of men and women seem, in

most cases, fundamental to ways of doing things in Japan including many
activities in Soka Gakkai. This means that women

' s political participation in

Japan often re ects a gender blueprint for the appropriate political topics with

which women can become engaged (LeBlanc 1999; Pharr 1981). Whether the
voice is coming from groups who fight for consumer rights, popular religious

movements, or indeed from women within political parties, there has been a
strong tendency to speak of women

s rights not as about equality with men,
but rather as needing to improve the conditions within the existing gender
divisions of labour (Pharr 1981; Lam 1992; Mackie 2003). LeBlanc (1999: 60)
has stated that it is the housewife identity, however unwanted or ambiguous
for women, that

'

is the primary vehicle to a socially recognized public posi-
tion for many women

'

. Government proposals usually focus on helping
women to cope with the dual role of childcare and work, for example by
providing more childcare facilities or by providing extra

'

financial help to
families with young children rather than focusing on the missing role of the
father. Komeito has been a forerunner for such proposals, for instance promot-
ing the idea of companies establishing their own nurseries so as to facilitate
women s continued employment.

While these practical measures may help to change male-centric work
practices (cf. Hunter 1993; Roberts 1994), changing patriarchal assumptions
that women are the primary and usually sole caretaker of family members
while men are the main wage earners proves an uphill battle. There may be
some change in attitudes in the current generation of men, as suggested by
Mathews (2003), yet the problem of long working hours has not been in any
way central to public debates about the declining birth rate and women

'

s
employment opportunities and how these issues are intricately linked. We see
the above issues re

'

' '

ected in Japanese women s role as politicians. A woman s