Agent of change
Tokyo governor yuriko Koike has broken the glass ceiling in patriarchal Japanese society and is paving the way for more women to take charge through her policies.
AS the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike is keenly aware that she is responsible for the lives and livelihood of the 14 million people who live in the metropolitan city. And, she’s determined that any decision she makes will be for them, which includes about seven million women and girls.
“I don’t want a Tokyo where people’s dreams can’t be granted. This is not an option,” she says during a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur.
And that, she stresses, includes the dreams of women who often have to overcome barriers to stake their rightful place in workplaces and in leadership roles.
“For a society to prosper economically and spiritually, it is important that we have more involvement from women,” she says firmly. “It is necessary to get more women active and involved in decision-making processes.
“I’ve been trying to get more female participation, both in managerial and staff levels, in the Tokyo Metropolitan government. When dealing with our government, I always emphasise the need for a female perspective in creating policies,” she says.
Koike is, of course, speaking from experience.
As the first woman to become governor of Tokyo – a role she assumed in 2016 and is currently holding for the second term running – and the first woman to be Defense Minister, she has made it a point to include more women in her team.
She is also bent on introducing policies that encourage and enable women to play an active part in the economy, society and even politics.
“When I became governor, I discovered that the wait list for the childcare system (nurseries) was at about 8,500 babies.
“Working mothers, who were trying to get a space for their babies so that they could continue working, had to wait for a space. I felt that this was totally unfair and I tried to improve this so that working mothers can work while also raising their children.
“Now, the wait list is down to 300. I am trying to encourage men to take time off to help raise children too so that society can change (the way they view gender roles),” she says.
Although there are more women working in Japan now, Koike says that they don’t have very good role models as women in Japan have always had to choose between a career and their family. This, she says, has led to many women sacrificing their careers to bring up children or even some choosing not to have a family nor get married because they want to work.
“There is an increasing number of women working now in Japan but in the past, women have had to encounter many difficulties to be able to work. Some found that having a child was not an option or they decided to stop their careers to raise their children. It was a tough situation, which was unfortunate.
“So I want to introduce policies that will create an ideal future model that women can aspire to,” she says.
Better lives
Born in 1952 in Hyogo Prefecture, Koike attended the region’s Kwansei Gakuin University before graduating from Egypt’s Cairo University in 1976.
Fluent in English and Arabic, her career in public office began in 1992 when she became a member of the House of Councillors and a year later, a member of the House of Representatives.
In 2003, she became the country’s Environment Minister and in 2006, she was made Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for National Security Affairs. In 2007, she became the Defense Minister.
Breaking the glass ceiling didn’t come without challenges, especially given how deeply patriarchal Japan is. When she was running for governor in 2016, a former governor said Tokyo cannot be left to “a woman who wears too much makeup”, according to a news report on CBS News.
“Unfortunately, in Japan, men still look down on women,” Koike said when asked to respond to the comment.
“I want to change that. But I should thank the governor. His comments gave me more female votes.”
Aside from raising the status of women, Koike is also aware that she has to deal with climate change issues head-on.
Climate change and sustainability were among the issues that she spoke about in her brief two-day visit to KL when she met KL mayor Datuk Seri Mahadi Che Ngah and Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim.
“Climate change and sustainability for cities is a very key matter that we are all facing, especially in urban areas. Tokyo and KL share a lot of problems, such as proper water management and emissions of all sorts of gasses.
“When the mayor of KL came to Japan some time back, he mentioned that KL had been experiencing bad floods and the same has been true of Tokyo, where we have been experiencing sudden torrential rains on a scale never seen before.
“We have been trying to prepare for this ahead of time by building underground storage facilities to deal with water. This was something both the mayor and I were interested in.”
She says that as leaders, they have the same duties to protect the lives and livelihoods of citizens and assets of the population.
“In the past, as the Environment Minister, I realised the need to change people’s lifestyles because how we lead our lives can have an impact on the environment.
“Governments have a role to play but individuals too have a responsibility.
“So I set out to change mindsets. I launched a campaign during the summer ... calling on businessmen to do away with ties and also to unbutton their shirt collars – this way they will not have to turn up the air conditioning so much and energy consumption will go down.
“This had quite a big impact on changing mindsets. However, these days just changing mindsets isn’t enough because the speed of change in the environment we live in is so much faster.
“As the governor responsible for the lives and lifestyles of 14 million people, I am working on changing regulations and introducing new ordinances that will make a bigger impact,” she explains.
Among the initiatives she’s introducing is making sure that all new cars in the city are not propelled by fossil fuel from 2030 and motorbikes from 2035. Also, housing developers will be made responsible for installing solar panels on new developments.
“Cars and houses have a life span and if we implement rules now, we are taking action for the future,” she says.
Capturing minds and hearts
During her trip to Malaysia, Koike also met with some Universiti Malaya undergraduates. She spoke about sustainability and shared what Tokyo is doing in that regard.
She also introduced a Japanese principle practised in martial arts to them.
“I spoke about the principle of Shin Gi Tai which describes a balance between mind, skill and body. This principle can also be applied to policies, I believe. Shin represents the people’s minds and hearts which our policies have to capture, Gi refers to the technology we have to apply, and Tai is an allegory for systems we have to put in place. By applying this principle, we can build a city’s sustainability and resilience,” she says.
“This is something I think about on a daily basis ... I think about what I want to do and what the world around me needs and I prioritise this and do things in this order,” she says, adding that it is important for women-related policies to be created by women themselves.
At 70, Koike isn’t planning on slowing down as she says she still has “a lot to do”.
However, she does take a break sometimes and one of her passions is anime.
“Anime is something loved by everyone, not just in Japan, and I love it. I also think cosplay is fun. I have dressed up as Maetel (from Leiji Matsumoto’s classic science fiction manga/tv anime, Galaxy Express 999), and Princess Sapphire from Osamu Tezuka’s manga/tv anime Princess Knight,” she says with a laugh. “It is fun.”
“In Tokyo, we have manholes everywhere on which we have many anime characters on the cover. We want people to walk about the city taking photos of these different covers and have a collection of photos,” she says.
“Just be careful of the cars when you’re taking photos!” she warns.