WHAT’S THE STORY?
A CHARISMATIC former TV star has not only punched through the glass ceiling by becoming the first female leader of Japan’s opposition party but also the first person of mixed-ethnic heritage to win the position.
Renho Murata’s election as leader of the left-of-centre Democratic Party is unprecedented in a country where female representation lags woefully behind other democracies – but at the moment it is her parentage that is causing her problems.
In Japan, dual nationality is frowned upon and there were calls for Renho, who goes by her first name, to quit when it was revealed she still held Taiwanese citizenship.
Despite apologising and asking for it to be revoked, the controversy could hamper her aim to become Japan’s first female prime minister.
Renho is insisting that her failure to renounce her Taiwanese citizenship was a mistake but she has been accused of lying over the issue.
Her mother is Japanese and her late father from Taiwan but in Japan people with parents of different nationalities must choose one or the other by the time they are 22.
When it emerged this week that she had not done so, 48-year-old Renho said she thought her father had dealt with the issue when she was 17.
WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM?
As well as raising the question of whether Japan is ready to accept a prime minister who has only one Japanese parent, the controversy exposes Renho to suspicions over where her loyalties lie.
“Although Taiwan is friendly towards Japan, it is in conflict with the Japanese standpoint regarding some issues, for instance, its ownership claims on the Senkaku islands,” pointed out the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
The islands are under Japanese administration but are also claimed by Taiwan and China.
Renho has also raised conservative hackles by pledging to maintain the military’s exclusively defensive role amid speculation that the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is planning to change the war-renouncing article of the country’s post-war constitution.
It is likely that Abe’s party, the right-wing Liberal Democrats, will aim to make as much capital as possible out of Renho’s parentage in order to prevent her gaining power.
In Japan, being of mixed descent is still rare, with only 2-3 per cent of babies born mixed race. These children are called “hafu” and their treatment within Japanese society tends to depend on the colour of their skin.
“Japanese society and media fetishise half-white complexions,” said Morley Robertson, a half-American, half-Japanese journalist.
“I definitely have received better treatment over my life than those mixed with non-white parentage.”
DOES EVERYONE THINK LIKE THIS?
There are signs that Japanese society is changing, however, and that the younger generation are far less bothered about mixed-ethnic heritage than their parents.
Ariana Miyamoto, whose father is African American, won Miss Universe Japan last year while this year’s Miss World Japan, Priyanka Yoshikawa, is half Indian.
A former model and TV newsreader, Renho seeks to be the voice of the younger generation and is seen as one of the few people who could put a dent in Abe’s popularity. She has nearly half a million followers on Twitter and campaigned on policies aimed at supporting young families such as increased pay for nursery staff and free pre-school places. She is against nuclear power and the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership and has said she would be willing to revise archaic parts of Japan’s constitution.
She also has strong support from the grassroots of her party and is thought to be the most likely hope of transforming its fortunes.
While in power from 2009 to 2012, the Democrats came under fire for their handling of the economy, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the proposed relocation on Okinawa island of a US marine base.
Heavily defeated by Abe’s conservative party in 2012, the Democrats have not yet managed to recover with a poll this week showing support for the former at 40 per cent with the latter trailing at seven per cent. The figure is a depressing one for the Democrats who had hoped to regain some popularity due to oppo-sition to the government’s new security plans and anger over the sluggish economy.
WILL RENHO CHANGE ANYTHING?
Still, there is no doubt that Renho has achieved a rare success for women in Japanese public life which could pave the way for more women to enter parliament.
She is the third woman to win high office in the country in the last two months, with Yuriko Koike becoming governor of Tokyo in July and Tomomi Inada becoming Japan’s minister of defence. She is only the second woman to hold the post – the first was Koike.
Women still represent less than 15 per cent of the seats in Japan’s parliament but there are hopes Renho’s leadership could change this.
Analysts believe previous attempts to promote women in Japan have ended in failure because it was largely superficial and there was no real political will for change from the men in charge of the parties.
Emma Dalton, of La Trobe University in Melbourne, said measures promoting women had tended to be one-off.
“The key problem was that people at the top were still men. So Renho becoming leader of the party will be quite significant,” she said.
Others are less hopeful that Renho’s election heralds much of a change in Japanese society.
“Women in Japanese politics are so minor they have had to adapt to men’s norms and practices,” said Mari Miura, of Sophia University in Tokyo. “If you don’t behave like men, you will be under-appreciated or valued, so because of that, Renho and any woman leader has to behave like men to some extent.”
