2003.5.2
The Japanese government should make efforts to eliminate gender discrimination and prevent further recurrence in the public domain, especially within the legislative bodies. The government should also work on setting to increase the ratio of female participation in the decision making process.
In the fifth governmental report, there is a section "Prevention of Sexual Harassment in Public Service Workplaces." (p26) It mentions the enforcement of the National Personnel Authority Rule 10-10 (concerning the prevention and other measures against sexual harassment) and how it has been working. However, there are no reports on prevention of sexual harassment in the legislature. No analysis was made to explain the reason for the low political participation by women in public positions both of national and local levels.
As it can be seen from the UNDP statistics in the Japanese government report (p49), although the percentage of women participating in politics is gradually rising, both in locally and centrally, overall political participation by women in Japan is still very low compared to the international level. It is easily understandable that the women in Japan face strong difficulty in a political setting dominated by men. Sexual harassment is a top deterrence. In recent years, cases of sexual harassment, especially environmental type, in the legislature have been frequently reported. Female political activities are unjustly infringed on because of their sex. It does not matter whether she has abilities or not. Judicial recourse is the only remedy available for victims. In 1999, a local assembly-woman made a claim for damages against her colleague's sexual harassment remarks when he called her "an unpopular woman among men" at the local assembly. She recovered damages. However, these sexual harassment remarks are not only libelous towards the woman who is the subject of the remark, but also an infringement on the human rights of all female members of the Diet and local assemblies. Considering the fact that this environment exists, the low political participation of women will continue.
The concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to the Japanese governmental report, under the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, expressed in September 2001, "its concern about widespread discrimination against women and the de facto inequality that still exists between men and women in Japanese society in professional and decision-making positions, both in political representative bodies, public services and administration, and in the private sector." Ignoring these problems proves that the Japanese government does not take UN recommendation seriously.
The JCLU suggests that the Japanese should make efforts to eliminate sexual harassment and improve sex discrimination settings in the legislature through human rights trainings, and also work on setting to increase the percentage of female participation in the decision making process.
Senator Shingo Nishimura, Vice Minister of the Japan Defense Agency at the time, made the following comments in his interview with Weekly Playboy Magazine (November 2, 1999 Issue): "If act of rape was not punishable, we'll all be a rapist. But the sentence on rape works as a deterrent, preventing it from happening." "National Defense is to prevent Japanese women being raped by foreign males." Also, referring to several female congress persons belonging to a particular party, "I would never save you even if you were being raped !".
His remark shows that his decision to save a woman being raped depends upon her belief. He blames women for her fault in a case of rape, leading to a premise which tolerates rape in some occasions. This is a discriminatory remark against women totally ignoring the fact that rape is a human rights violation.
Facing strong protest due to his remarks, he resigned his position as Vice Minister of the Japan Defense Agency, but he remains as a Representative and once held a post of the chair of the Committee on Discipline.
During the session of the Lower House Budgetary Committee on February 9th, 2001, a male member distributed slanderous leaflets to several other members of the House of Representatives. The leaflet insulted one of the female members by calling her a "manager of the disorderly house." He was not penalized for this remark except for a verbal warning made by the Chairperson of the Committee.