Just three months ago, in October, Japan saw two historic firsts: Sanae Takaichi became the nation’s first female prime minister and Satsuki Katayama was appointed the first female finance minister.
Many in the liberal media and Takaichi’s critics quickly labeled her “hawkish,” “anti-women” and “anti-gender equality,” with National Public Radio in the U.S. declaring, “She broke the glass ceiling, but she is no feminist.”
Some news outlets in Japan went even further, labeling her meiyo dansei (an honorary male) — a woman who succeeds by abandoning women’s interests. Media coverage at home and abroad obsesses over her opposition to selective separate surnames and same-sex marriage while systematically ignoring her legislative record on protecting women and children. The Associated Press, for example, reported that she voices “old-fashioned views favored by male party heavyweights.”
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