The time had come to give female members of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP) more prominence at key meetings, the party’s secretary general, Toshihiro Nikai, said this week, days after Mori had stepped down following his claim that meetings attended by “talkative women” tended to “drag on”. But Nikai’s attempt to address the yawning gender gap in his party quickly unravelled when it became clear that the small groups of women attending the meetings were expected to be seen but not heard.
The LDP, which has governed Japan almost unchallenged since 1955, had proposed allowing groups of about five women to attend meetings of its 12-member board, 10 of whom are men, on condition they remained silent observers.
