The Diet on Wednesday passed a bill seeking to boost the number of female lawmakers and assembly members in a nation where women have long been underrepresented in politics.
The measure, approved unanimously by the Upper House, urges each political party to make every effort to try and ¡°equalize as much as possible¡± the number of male and female candidates it fields for national and local elections.
Although it heralds a significant step toward increasing the presence of females in the male-dominated world of Japanese politics, the bill has no legally binding power, only stipulating political parties need to ¡°make voluntary efforts¡± to even the playing field in terms of gender. A failure to achieve the goal entails no penalty.
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