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2014/06/25
Statement regarding improper remarks made in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly which foster gender discrimination and misogyny
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On June 25, the Chair of the DPJ Gender Equality Committee, Kazuko Koori, issued the following statement.
On June 18, in a plenary session of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, a female Diet member of Your Party was asking questions about support measures for pregnancy, childbirth and infertility, when a male assembly member belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party made an improper remark, calling out, "You should hurry up and get married". In addition, according to media reports, other remarks, such as "Can't you manage to have children?" were also made, and this issue, including the assembly's response, has been the subject of strong criticism both within Japan and abroad.
These series of improper remarks do not just damage the reputation and the human rights of the female assembly member involved. It is totally deplorable that remarks fostering discrimination and hatred of women were made in the assembly, which should by rights take the initiative in efforts to eliminate all kinds of harassment, and such events cannot be passed over.
All the assembly members who made improper sexist and misogynistic remarks should come forward voluntarily and apologise. Moreover, it is our strong desire that the Tokyo metropolitan assembly will not seek to draw the curtains on these events by closing the session, but instead put in place measures to establish exactly what happened and restore public confidence.
In any case, the "active participation of women" which is being strongly promoted by the Abe administration as part of its growth strategy, uses women as 'tools' of the growth strategy, and we feel obliged to say that it is totally divorced from the resolution of fundamental issues relating to "respect for women" such as poverty and domestic violence. With Japan scheduled to submit a report and undergo evaluation in the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women this July, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the international community's interest in women's rights
issues here in Japan is heightened. We fear that this current incident
calls Japan's perception of human rights into question and also severely damages our reputation internationally.
Moreover, it has been pointed out that one of the reasons leading to the creation of an environment that permits such improper remarks as these to take place is that Japan has an extremely low percentage of female lawmakers. In order to prevent a reoccurrence of such events, we believe that in addition to parliamentary reform, active measures need to be taken to increase the number of female lawmakers at both national and local level, such as for example implementing a quota system.
The Democratic Party of Japan will continue to condemn all forms of harassment and to work actively to realize the realization of a truly gender-equal society.
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