Australian female lawmakers make their mark
Australia's ruling Labor Party won a majority of seats in a general election earlier this month. With vote counting ongoing, a record-breaking number of women are set to win seats in the House of Representatives. In this report, we look at an election that women helped shape.
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Japan Times
3 days ago
- Japan Times
Over half of local assemblywomen suffer harassment: government survey
Over 50% of female local assembly members in Japan have been troubled with harassment, more than double the proportion of such male members, according to a Cabinet Office report. The report on barriers to women's participation in politics, released Friday, said that 53.8% of local assemblywomen answered in the government agency's latest survey that they themselves, their family members, or their supporters have been harassed by others while 23.6% of assemblymen made similar answers. Specifically, "verbal abuse" was cited by both male and female members as the leading form of harassment. "Insulting behavior and remarks based on unconscious gender bias" and "physical contact and stalking" were complained much more strongly by women than men. On harassers, 65.7% of female members pointed the finger at election rivals and their supporters as well as peer assembly members, while 64.0% mentioned voters. Meanwhile, 41.0% of male members have never experienced or heard about harassment, far exceeding the proportion of such female members, which came to 19.5%. Another finding was that 73.6% of female members faced challenges to juggle political activities with family life, compared with 36.4% for male members. The survey was conducted with local assembly members across the country in November and December last year. Valid replies were received from 5,075 members. In a separate survey conducted in November of 1,000 people who had given up the idea of seeking a parliamentary or local assembly seat, more than 40% of women had refrained from running in elections due to sex-specific health reasons, such as pregnancy, or the traditional belief among surrounding people that politics is for men. The results highlighted the fact that harassment remains a barrier to political gender equality even after a revised law to promote the equality took effect in June 2021, critics said.
Japan Times
5 days ago
- Japan Times
Moriyasu mourns end of unbeaten run after loss to Australia
Hajime Moriyasu has already led Japan to qualification for next year's World Cup finals but there was no disguising his frustration at his understrength side losing 1-0 to Australia in Perth on Thursday. Aziz Behich's 90th-minute strike consigned Samurai Blue to a first loss to Australia in 16 years and a first defeat in all matches since February last year. "It ended up being an extremely frustrating and disappointing result," Moriyasu told reporters. "Many inexperienced players were in action, but they were enthusiastic in practice, showed their best and were prepared to fight like Japan as a team." Moriyasu has ambitions to win the World Cup next year, not so foolhardy a goal when it is remembered that he led Japan to victories over Germany and Spain at the last edition in 2022. Keen to expand his squad depth, Moriyasu rested his top players on Thursday and put out a team featuring nine players starting for the first time, three of them debutants. Japan still dominated the match with its neat possession football for all but the last couple of minutes and would have won had they produced a better end-product in front of goal. "I don't think we were technically and physically second best. Maybe, a lack of experience cost us," Moriyasu said "I wanted to see what (inexperienced) players could do in a high-pressure environment. We have to improve and expand our squad." Japan rounds out its qualifying campaign against Indonesia in Suita on Tuesday and Moriyasu said his team would be aiming to get back to winning ways. "We wanted to continue our unbeaten run, but it's too late for that now," Moriyasu said. "We'll ready ourselves the best we can to round things off with a win."
Yomiuri Shimbun
6 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Penalties in Whistleblowing System: The Weight of Protecting Accusers Must Be Seriously Taken to Heart
The revision of the Whistleblower Protection Law can be described as an attempt to ensure protection for those who accuse others of wrongdoing or illegal acts within their organizations. Local governments and corporations should take the newly established penalties seriously. A bill to revise the law, meant to offer whistleblowers more robust protection, has been passed. It received unanimous support in the House of Representatives and the backing of a significant majority in the House of Councillors. The current law prohibits local governments, private companies and other entities from conducting disadvantageous treatment to those who report illegal acts in their organizations to internal sections to deal with whistleblowing, media organizations or others. However, there are no penalties at present. The revised law stipulates a fine of up to ¥30 million for corporations that dismiss or take disciplinary action against a whistleblower for leveling an accusation. Individuals who are involved in decisions to punish whistleblowers are to be jailed for up to six months or fined up to ¥300,000. In addition, the revised law states explicitly that whistleblowers may not be sought out. Under the current law, this is noted in the guidelines. In the past, whistleblowers have revealed that information on food labels was being falsified and that vehicle recalls were not issued when they should have been. There are many examples of whistleblowers uncovering irregularities in organizations. However, if those who speak out about offenses are mistreated, there will be no one left to blow the whistle. Establishing penalties to prevent undue pressure on whistleblowers is a significant step. The importance of the whistleblowing system has been underlined again by the turmoil that has plagued the Hyogo prefectural government since last year. Gov. Motohiko Saito has repeatedly acted in a way that appears to have trampled on the spirit of the law. Saito directed a search for a former senior official in the prefectural government who accused him of workplace bullying, among other things, and identified the accuser. The prefectural government then took disciplinary action against the former official. He later died in what is believed to have been a suicide. This year, a third-party committee set up by the prefectural government concluded that the search for the accuser and the disciplinary action were violations of the Whistleblower Protection Law. However, Saito still denies any illegality. He has said that the conclusions of the committee and others are 'just one view' and that his 'perception differs' from them. Although third parties pointed out his offense, Saito simply became defiant, and he has evinced no shred of sincerity as he continues to evade the issue. The penalties in the revised law do not apply retroactively, but the Diet's passage of the revised bill by an overwhelming margin demonstrates just how unjust was the disciplinary action against the former official. A new allegation has surfaced that personal information about the former official was leaked externally at Saito's direction. As long as Saito refuses to admit to his wrongdoing and remains in his post, the turmoil in the prefectural government will not abate. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 5, 2025)
