Being male it’s easy to disregard the struggle that women have faced. For the majority of recorded history, the ‘dominant gender’ has ruled over this world, however in just a few decades, due to implausible veracity and staunch self-belief, the outlook for women has changed beyond all recognition. In Japan, election fever is hotting up and for Aso-san and his cohorts at the LDP, the notion of ‘women’s affairs’ is proving a particularly prickly subject..

As you will know by now, oh avid reader (!), I have a love for Japan that has been deep-seated in my psyche for many moons. Way back when, I looked upon Japan as a jewelled isle adrift a sea of ravenous, rusty tin sharks. So different, so individual, so self-absorbed; Japan was so concerned with itself that it did not have time for the worries, concerns, grieves, lifestyles or cultures of the rest of the world. Of course, this is a faux amis, and a notion that never existed anyway, but to a young intrepid japanophile washing up on its beaches of gold, and looking into its people’s eyes of emerald, it was great to think that things were different.

In reality, of course, Japan has its challenges, just like everywhere else. That said though, ranking just 54th in the international gender empowerment rankings, behind Tanzania no less, was something that surprised even me. Due to this, some sections of Japanese society believe that women have become the forgotten workforce. Take one certain Japanese company and you will find that nobody recognises the women that work there. I don’t mean that the men, in their crisp, white shirts and their dazzlingly well-cut suits ignore them as they stand patiently at the water cooler, oh no. What I refer to is that there simply is no record of these women. No start date, no bonus rating, no personnel file. They never have an appraisal, or at least, they do, but nobody minutes the detail. The only people that know their names are the ones who sit next to them, and nobody has any idea how much they get paid, apart from the fact that the man in the next seat receives a salary which that woman would have to work another 32 years to achieve.

It goes on. Of the 225 largest companies listed on the Nikkei, not one employs a woman as chief executive. In the UK, if you haven’t got a quota of ethnic minorities (and women) working for you, then there is this unwritten law that says that you are a bad employer, regardless of whether that person is fit for the job or not. That is just the UK’s political correctness gone mad, and I understand, thankfully, that Japan does not operate in this way, however a number of such magnitude cannot be the work of Chance.

For such organisations as the Tokyo Women’s Union et al, they see a direct correlation between a change in political power and a change in the focus on women’s rights. They request equal pay for equal work, pension reform, day-care reform and better support for working mothers, something which they believe is imperative rather than impractical.

The LDP has dominated Japan’s political outlook for five decades, and if it weren’t for the fact that the population teeters yet nearer to old age by the day, there would not be many around who could remember with any clarity what politics was like without them. Like an old engine left to rust and decay, bits have been added on here, there and everywhere, to the point where nobody really knows what’s going on anymore. Cogs are missing teeth, pistons are firing blanks, and it would appear that at some point, the coal is going to run out.

However this attitude is not something seen just at the topmost level. Step one down, to Shintaro Ishihara, the Govenor of Tokyo, and you will be forgiven for understanding the point when he was quoted as saying: “Women who have lived beyond their ability to produce children are of no use to society”. It’s beggars’ belief, some might say, that in a country noted for being so versatile, so forward thinking and so revolutionising, that an opinion so draconian could be attributed to a man of such power.

The DPJ on the other hand, seems to have raised the bar, stating that its Shadow Cabinet, if elected, would place women in three of its key, policy-making roles. “Three!” I hear you cry, however for Japanese politics, this is a record, and undoubtedly, a step towards what equality makers really desire.

Please do not be fooled into thinking that I have lost my mind. Of course, my burgeoning love for Japan is intact, it never went away, but when something like this is brought to the fore, it does question ones ability to garner such a solid defence of ones love in the face of the critics. Furthermore, I do not believe that the examples I have relayed above are the work of men hell bent on supremacy, or even that the majority of Japanese women feel that they are particularly victimised. In fact, women’s rights is just a small issue within the iron triangle of a corporate, political and bureaucratic miasma that overshadows Japan currently. And of course, asking for immediate change is never the answer, especially from a nation that has its roots so firmly planted in a historical notion of how women feature in society. I don’t even think that it is a notion that should be eradicated, or lost, as that is what makes Japan what it is, and is a small part of a whole, which I love and adore and cherish. What I would hope could happen however, is that along with that notion, a whole load of others could be planted too, and that they are permitted to prosper into healthy blossoms also.

As the DPJ is so happy to proclaim at the moment: Japan is changing..