RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now to politics across the Pacific, where the minority party in Japan's parliament is also led by a woman. NPR's Elise Hu in Tokyo reports on the political rise of women in Japan.
ELISE HU, BYLINE: At this monthly Tokyo networking lunch, anyone with a $30 entry fee can show up to meet potential clients, trade business cards and enjoy a big meal.
YUKARI NAKAYAMA: (Speaking Japanese).
HU: "I got certified recently as a closet organizer," Yukari Nakayama says. "So here, I'm trying to look for clients and to expand my business." Nakayama left the workforce after her son was born nearly 20 years ago. Now she's trying to break back in using the skills she learned from all those years at home.
NAKAYAMA: (Speaking Japanese).
HU: "Closet organizing works well because I've had so much experience being a housewife," she says. Nakayama's path is common. Labor force participation among Japanese women is 4 out of 10, far below the U.S. Lack of child care options in Japan and cultural pressure for women to take on household duties means it's the moms here who drop out of work. It touches every part of society, including politics, as Kyoto University diplomacy professor Nancy Snow explains.
NANCY SNOW: Women have not really been coached or mentored or encouraged to take on leadership roles. Also, women aren't allowed to often show ambition, to sort of telegraph that. I was...
HU: Culturally?
SNOW: Yeah, culturally.
HU: In official registries, married women, to this day, are listed along with children as part of a man's household. If they're single, that of their parents.
SNOW: I think it really goes back to the social hierarchy, the way that it's been for decades.
HU: But signs of change are showing up in politics. Tokyo is now led by its first-ever female governor, Yuriko Koike. Japan's new defense minister, Tomomi Inada, is only the second woman to ever hold the role. And Japan's opposition Democratic Party is, for the first time, led by a woman. She's a former journalist named Renho Murata.
RENHO MURATA: (Through interpreter) Twenty-three years ago, when I was a newscaster, I interviewed an important member of the ruling party. He said to me frankly that he doesn't think wives should even speak about politics.
HU: More than two decades have passed since that conversation, but today women still represent fewer than 15 percent of all seats in Japan's Parliament. That's compared to 20 percent in the U.S. Congress. Renho says she's hoping to use her position to help get more women elected.
MURATA: (Through interpreter) We don't have enough women to raise their hands.
HU: What was it in your personality that made you raise your hand?
MURATA: (Through interpreter) It all began for me when I was raising two children. In a society that complains about not having enough children, the government wasn't offering any support. That made me want to become a politician.
HU: But cultural biases persist. Renho's bra size was listed on her Wikipedia page. Mayor Koike was criticized during her race for wearing too much makeup. And top-down efforts to increase participation of women in higher levels have fallen short. Japan's government conceded last year it wouldn't reach its goal of getting women into 30 percent of management roles by 2020. Women are so outnumbered in business that the fact they're working at all is a story. Nancy Snow calls it discouraging.
SNOW: And I look forward, in this century - and it may take a while - for it to be just the case that a woman is in power in government here or in industry and she just happens to be a woman.
HU: For now, the few women in power are proving to be rather fearless.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER SHINZO ABE: (Speaking Japanese).
(APPLAUSE)
HU: In a notable exchange with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month, Renho stood up against casino legislation that was rushed through Parliament. Facing the prime minister on the floor, Renho said...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MURATA: (Speaking Japanese).
HU: "...You seem to lie as often as you breathe." Abe chuckled but didn't bother to respond.
Back at the networking lunch, The former stay-at-home mom, Nakayama, says seeing the election of these women is a step forward.
NAKAYAMA: (Speaking Japanese).
HU: "But until we see what they're actually going to do," she says, "it's hard to say what this means for Japanese women overall."
Elise Hu, NPR News, Tokyo.