Representing Women’s Interests in Local Politics: Substantive Representation in Japan and Korea

• In Event: Women and Political Representation in Japan and Korea

Abstract

The percentage of women legislators remains low in Japan and Korea. Yet, the number of women legislators has steadily increased particularly in local politics. In Korea, political leaders introduced quotas to fast-track women’s representation in both national and subnational elections in the early 2000s (Yoon and Shin 2015). By contrast, Japan has not adopted the quota system—neither quota adoption nor women’s political representation was an important priority for political leaders in the country (Gaunder 2015). On the other hand, party-based non-quota strategies have been more prominent in local politics since the late 1990s. We investigate whether the increase of women legislators has resulted in greater representation of women’s interests (i.e., substantive representation) in local politics. We conceptualize substantive representation as changes in the legislative agenda and outcomes (Franceschet and Piscopo 2008). For evidence, we assemble data on bill introduction and passage in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly and Seoul metropolitan council in the past two decades. We show different ways in which women’s interests are represented in the two countries.

Authors

• Jiso Yoon, University of Kansas

• Kimiko Osawa, Yonsei University