Commentary by William Pesek
Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- For all the sexist stereotypes about Japan, it may get a female leader before the U.S.
It's a distant possibility, mind you. Tokyo politics really are as male-dominated as you will find in the developed world. If you think Hillary Clinton got a raw deal in her U.S. presidential campaign, check out Japan. It ranks among the lowest nations in female participation in politics and business.
Undeterred, Yuriko Koike, 56, reportedly is considering a run to replace Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who resigned this week. Well, good for her if she decides to try.
Japan needs more such trailblazers. This is, after all, a nation that until a few years ago was still naming men to oversee gender-equality issues. Yet this isn't really about gender. Koike may be the closest thing the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has to a charismatic agent of change.
The one-time television anchorwoman has served as Japan's defense and environment minister. A legislator since 1992, Koike was among the candidates then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi chose in 2005 to oppose conservative lawmakers in elections.
Koizumi is widely thought to be championing her behind the scenes to succeed Fukuda, who lasted just 11 months as premier. Fukuda replaced the equally forgettable Shinzo Abe, who stayed in the job only a year after Koizumi stepped down in 2006.
Thatcher Fan
Unlike Fukuda and Abe, Koike is a self-described passionate advocate of the kinds of pro-market and smaller-government ideas that foreign investors desire. Koike is an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, the U.K. prime minister who helped shake up the economy in the 1980s.
Japan's increasingly uncompetitive business culture could use a dose of Thatcherism. It got a small taste during Koizumi's five-year tenure. He brushed the broad strokes, reducing public- works spending and selling Japan Post.
Koizumi was more talk than action, and his successors had less interest in improving the economy. Japan's push for change has fizzled out just as the nation is sliding toward a recession.
Most observers expect former Foreign Minister Taro Aso to replace Fukuda. He favors the old-school fiscal policies that left Japan with the world's largest public debt. The gaffe-prone Aso is likely to spend more time clarifying his clumsy comments than making the economy more international.
Welcome Step
Koike might be a welcome step in the right direction. ``She represents within the LDP an economic school that is the successor to Mr. Koizumi and that is antagonistic to Mr. Aso,'' says LDP member Dan Harada.
It's am important point. Koike thinks bigger than the average Koizumian. She wants Japan to be an environmental leader that will create jobs as the nation exports its green technologies. Koike also is a Middle East expert who studied in Cairo and speaks Arabic.
Not a bad skill to have at a time when Japan is in talks with sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East to raise as much as 100 billion yen ($927 million) to boost foreign investment.
Gender is perhaps the main attribute working against Koike as LDP bigwigs settle on a new leader. While no one is saying it, the conservative greybeards who run Japan aren't big on putting women in high places.
Of course, the U.S. also is a gender battleground these days. Democratic Senator Clinton came the closest any woman ever has to winning a major party's nomination. Republican John McCain's move to tap Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate also made 2008 an historic year for American women.
Common Quest
It's instructive, though, to remember that India, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Pakistan and the Philippines had -- or still have -- female leaders long before more developed nations, including the U.S. and Japan. In that sense, Koike, Clinton and Palin have a common quest to pump more diversity into their nations' top offices.
Another Japanese woman, Consumer Affairs Minister Seiko Noda, 48, may run for prime minister.
A female Japanese leader would be nothing short of revolutionary. It's also the feminist boost that Japan's economy needs.
Women account for just 12 percent of Japan's 722 parliamentary members. Japan doesn't have a monopoly on sexism. Yet how often does the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development call on a nation to increase female labor participation to boost growth? In July, the OECD called it a ``waste of valuable human resources.''
Koike's Promise
Analysts such as Naomi Fink of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. say women are underemployed even though they are more highly educated than the OECD average. Reasons for the disparity include insufficient child-care support and labor practices that nudge women into low-paying temporary jobs. Japan's anti-discrimination laws also lag behind other OECD countries.
Discrimination feeds into Japan's low birthrate because having children tends to be a career-ending decision, so many women put off motherhood.
A female leader may have more interest in addressing Japan's inequities than male ones. Perhaps the sight of a woman running Asia's biggest economy will inspire Japanese girls to aim higher and demand more of politicians.
Irrespective of her sex, Koike may just be the best person for a job that has been done all too poorly for years.
(William Pesek is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: William Pesek in Tokyo at wpesek@bloomberg.net
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