Woman to Head Japanese Socialist Party

For the first time in Japanese politics, a woman has been elected head of a major political party, a vote count revealed Saturday.

Takako Doi, 57, was overwhelmingly elected to head the Japan Socialist Party, defeating Tetsu Ueda, 58, by 58,670 votes to 11,748. Her landslide victory came in the wake of the July election setback by Japan’s voters that created the greatest crisis the Socialist Party has faced in its 31-year history.

Nearly 85% of the party’s 85,861 members cast ballots Thursday and Friday in voting to choose a successor to the outgoing chairman, Masashi Ishibashi.

Doi’s victory theoretically makes her a candidate for prime minister. As head of the party, she will be nominated for the office by the Socialists when the lower house of Parliament conducts the formal vote for prime minister that must follow a general election.

In reality, the Socialists, who lost a quarter of their strength and were reduced to only 86 seats--16.8% of the total--in the lower house in the July 6 election, are given no chance of getting the 257 votes they would need to elect her prime minister.

Doi, who has won seven terms since first being elected to Parliament in 1969, was asked to be a candidate for the party’s top post by outgoing Socialist executives, who resigned to accept responsibility for the July election debacle. But political analysts agree that except for an election defeat so severe that it prompted demands that the party change its image completely, the Socialists would never have selected a woman.

There are only seven women in the powerful 512-seat lower house, and 22 in the 252-seat upper house.

Doi’s victory is expected to give a psychological boost to women seeking more responsibility in Japan’s male-dominated society. But the fact that she has never married, and that her success is attributed partly to her lack of family responsibilities may reduce the inspirational effect for many Japanese women who still place primary emphasis on family life.

Many political observers have expressed doubt that Doi will be able to reform Japan’s No. 1 opposition party.

In a victory statement, she said she has “a feeling of uneasiness” because “this happened without any intention on my part.”

“I feel a great responsibility. . . . I want to make the party one that is open to the people, one which will create firm policies capable of dealing with (the ruling) Liberal Democratic Party,” she said. “In a male-dominated society, I want to stress a woman’s sense of problems of daily livelihood and give importance to a philosophy of human rights--not to a philosophy of power politics.”

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said he welcomed the election of “a lively” new Socialist leader. He called the selection of a woman to head a political party “an epochal event” for Japan. Nakasone also said Doi has a reputation as “an expert on diplomacy” as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the lower house.

He added, however, that he hopes she will be able to change the party’s policies opposing Japan’s military forces, its security treaty with the United States and nuclear power, as well as modifying its stance on South Korea.

The Socialist Party, which advocates unarmed neutralism and abrogation of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, recognizes Communist North Korea as the sole legitimate government on the Korean peninsula.

Constitutional Law Expert

Although named a vice chairperson three years ago, Doi, an expert on constitutional law, has played no role in party management until now. She also lacks a personal faction, has had no experience in negotiating with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over handling of bills in Parliament and has no ties with the Socialist secretariat, a staff of non-politicians that runs party affairs on a day-to-day basis.

Focusing most of her political activities on peace movements, women’s problems, and diplomacy, she has attracted widespread support from a variety of “citizen’s movements,” such as anti-nuclear campaigns and movements to help the handicapped. She also has served as the Socialist Party’s liaison officer for its limited contacts with the United States.

And she has parlayed a common touch into widespread popularity with voters. She likes playing pachinko, an immensely popular game similar to pinball machines, and karaoke-- singing along to music recorded without the words.