Why Are There More Women in the Upper House?

• In Event: Interesting Approaches to Gender Representation

Abstract

In bicameral legislatures without a quota system, such as Japan, the percentage of women’s representation often differs significantly between the two chambers. For decades, the upper house in Japan has consistently had twice as many women members as the lower house. Yet, the reasons for this disparity are not fully explained by differences in electoral systems alone. We conducted two survey experiments to explore the mechanisms behind this disparity from the perspectives of voters and candidates. Our findings suggest that informing voters that the upper house plays a subordinate role in decision-making increases their support for women candidates in upper house elections. Furthermore, we found that women are more willing to run for office when informed about the job security of an upper house position, while men are less willing when informed about the limited power of the upper house to appoint the prime minister. These results indicate that institutional priming conditions people’s attitudes and willingness to run for office, contributing to the significant disparity in women’s representation between the two chambers in the bicameral legislature.

Authors

• Yoshikuni Ono, Waseda University

• Hirofumi Miwa, Gakushuin University

• Yuko Kasuya, Keio University