Japan elects its first woman opposition leader

Parliamentarian Renho Murata Thursday was elected leader of Japan’s Democratic Party, making her the first woman to lead the political opposition in a country that is marked by low female participation in politics.

The 48yearold former model and reporter, who served as a minister from 2010 to 2012, overwhelmingly triumphed (winning practically 60 percent of the votes) over former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara and lawmaker Yuichiro Tamaki.

Her election comes after two other women politicians assumed important positions in the country; Yuriko Koike became Tokyo governor and Tomomi Inada, the defense minister.

Renho (who is referred to by her first name by the media) assumes leadership at a moment of great turmoil for the Democratic Party, which has suffered disappointing results in all elections following their controversial administration of the country between 2009 and 2012.

The main challenge for the former television presenter is to recover credibility for her party and present a challenge to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

A parliamentarian since 2004, Renho is the daughter of a Taiwanese, and despite being born in Japan she acquired Japanese citizenship only at the age of 17.

This created a controversy around her candidacy that led her to initially deny that she held dual citizenship (although she admitted it later), something Japanese authorities frown upon.

Renho’s election is a huge boost for women’s empowerment in Japan, a country that despite being the world’s third largest economy has lower participation of women in politics than countries such as Botswana, Liberia and Ghana.

In the Lower House of the Japanese parliament, hardly 45 of the 475 seats are occupied by women, which is just 9.5 percent of women’s representation, according to a study published by InterParliamentary Union.