From stalking to death threats, female candidates still face harassment
She slowed down a couple of times to let the car pass, but it kept tailing her. When she stopped by the side of the road, the other car did too. It took her about half an hour to lose the mystery driver.
'It was scary. I kept wondering how far this person was going to follow me, and whether I'd be able to shake the driver off. I was horrified,' Ushida said Tuesday, recalling the incident.
Ushida's campaign office suspects the stalker wanted to find out where she lived rather than disrupt her political activities.
Female candidates in the Upper House election face many forms of harassment from voters and supporters — from stalking and death threats to uncomfortably long handshakes and hugs.
It remains a challenge as Japan aims to increase the number of women running for office. The government set a goal of having women as 35% of parliamentary candidates by 2025, but only 29.1% of the candidates were women this time.
Since the stalking incident, Ushida's office decided to temporarily stop publicizing the schedules of her rallies on social media and the DPP tightened security for her. Police also now patrol Ushida's public rallies.
Meet-and-greets can be an uncomfortable experience for female candidates. At times, male voters jump onto Ushida to hug her and refuse to let go of her hand. Now, she prefers fist-bumping to handshakes.
In another case, a Sanseito candidate who goes by her first name Saya reportedly received multiple death threats via email and filed a report to the police earlier this month.
Independent candidate Shiori Yamao, a former Lower House member of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, also told the police that she has been receiving death threats.
'I know men are trying to be aware, but women are being showered with more defamation than they realize. (Women) are standing here with the risk of being slandered and attacked. It's not just me," Yamao said during a stump speech earlier this month.
Female local assembly members are also facing similar problems.
Some 53.8% of female local assembly members said they have been harassed, compared to 23.6% for their male counterparts, according to a Cabinet Office report released in June.
Among male local assembly members, 41% said they have never experienced harassment nor heard of others experiencing it, compared to 19.5% of female local assembly members.
The report showed that women have had to grapple with various forms of harassment, ranging from touching to cat-calling from both voters and colleagues.
Experts say that while Japan is far from ridding elections of harassment, creating spaces for female candidates to seek help is an important start.
'Japan doesn't have an organized system of consultation centers and ordinances. The goal of zero harassment is too big for now,' said Mari Hamada, co-director of the NPO Harassment Consultation Center for Women in Politics.
'That's why we need to use public funds and establish specialized agencies (to start tackling harassment),' she said. 'If we don't, we won't see (Japan) getting serious about electing more women to public office.'
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