Japanese women won suffrage in 1946, and in that year a record 39 women were elected to the House of Representatives.

Women currently hold 8.9 percent of the seats in the Diet--ranking Japan 123rd internationally in terms of female representation in government.

Although their numbers are low in the Diet, women's political influence continues to grow. In April's unified local elections, a record 2,381 women won seats in prefectural and municipal assemblies, increasing the percentage of women in office at the local level from 4.6 percent to 5.8 percent.

The Kanagawa Network Movement (NET) is a political party established at the grassroots level to promote the equal representation of women in politics, and has sent many members to local assemblies since its establishment in 1984.

	Mataki talks about women in politics in the NET office in Yokohama.

Kyoko Mataki, 50, heads the organization and serves in the Kanagawa prefectural assembly. She discusses with The Daily Yomiuri why few women participate in politics, and why they should become more active in the field.

Daily Yomiuri: What is the Kanagawa Network Movement and how did it get started?

Mataki: The Kanagawa Network Movement is a political party based in Kanagawa Prefecture. We have 3,400 members in 18 municipalities, many of whom are women, and there are 39 local assembly members from our party, including four in the prefectural assembly.

The organization was established by a group of housewives who were initially involved in a consumer cooperative movement.

We were working to distribute natural soap to stop the use of synthetic detergents. We asked seven municipal assemblies, including those of Yokohama and Kawasaki, to adopt ordinances to promote the use of natural soap. However, the idea was voted down, which made us realize that we had to have political power. In 1983, the year before NET was formally launched, we succeeded in sending our first representative to the Kawasaki city assembly.

How did you get involved in politics?

I entered university in 1968, the year when the student movement was at its peak. But I was not politically active because I could not truly relate to the causes that the students were fighting for. But I was aware of many unjust things in society, including discrimination against women, the disabled and Korean residents.

Upon graduation, I joined Fujitsu Ltd., where I was assigned to patent-related clerical work.

There were different educational programs for men and women. Women had to "learn" how to answer phone calls and make tea, while men, regardless of whether they were bright or not, were given diverse job-related training. Gender discrimination was so deep-rooted that even the labor union made different pay-raise requests for male and female workers and no one asked whether that was wrong.

At an early stage, I realized that the corporate world was unfair to women. So I left the company to have a child four years later with no regrets. In fact, I do not think that I would have been able to combine work and child rearing given the work conditions, including the long commute.

While bringing up my children, I became increasingly aware of the need for a sounder environment, with safe food and clean air. So I joined a consumer organization in Atsugi, where we were living, to secure safer food. That was shortly before NET was established.

What most impressed me about the NET movement was its principles. One is that women should play a major role in politics. Another is that politics should not consume much money. I was tired of male-dominated "money politics."

NET's membership fee is from 1,200 yen to 2,000 yen a year. That's not much, is it? This is proof that you do not need a lot of money to get involved in politics. NET is supported by people who are willing to contribute their ideas, a little time and labor. Our salaries as assembly members go to NET, and the money is used to rent NET's office and as campaign funds for our candidates.

The biggest obstacle is the public's distrust of politics. People tend to think politics is something sleazy, and you are regarded with suspicion the moment you become part of it. I myself had that prejudice, and needed to overcome it to start engaging in political activities.

I admired some liberal politicians who appeared to be concerned over what was needed for society, but I never thought that I could take part myself.

How did you overcome your own and other people's prejudice against politics?

The main feature of NET was that it was not politics dictated by a few prominent people, but that it was initiated by average citizens.

The NET movement began with co-op activities, through which we learned how to discuss issues that would directly affect us.

Co-op activities were based on the idea that if a large number of us acted together, we could get what we wanted, such as safe food. But it was not easy to motivate local residents for the sake of the community. So my strategy was to just talk and talk. You would ask neighbors, "Can you do that?" If they agreed, then we would work together. Ours was and still is truly a grass-roots movement.

Japanese are known to value harmony. That it is so hard to establish solidarity in communities is very strange.

I have very strong doubts as to whether Japanese are good at cooperating with each other. When we say cooperation, it means that you should keep your mouth shut and not complain.

But cooperation is only possible when opinions can be exchanged freely to learn what others think.

Social pressure for conformity is so strong that I feared being excluded from any group that I belonged to if I said what I thought was just and right. That was why I deliberately avoided participating in established groups, such as parent-teacher associations and residents' associations.

What difficulties does your organization face?

Because politics is so unpopular, it is hard to find suitable candidates. We support the most qualified candidate, not just anyone who wants to run. So the first challenge is to persuade people to run--and then persuade their husbands, children and other relatives, who are often reluctant about them getting involved in politics.

Another concerns policy. Before, it was quite easy--we just insisted on, say, solving a trash problem or thought up slogans. Now we need expert advice to find concrete solutions to specific issues, such as social welfare and environmental problems. There are few local specialists who can advise us on how those issues should be solved.

What have you learned most about local politics since you became an assembly member?

It did not surprise me to see so few women in the assembly, because I already knew that. But I was taken aback by how men dominated all the powerful sectors of society, such as the city government, companies and various pressure groups--there were hardly any female leaders.

The city government primarily deals with men, such as heads of local residents associations and industrial groups. Those men were often detached from what was actually happening in their communities or what local residents wanted to change.

Local politics will be distorted if it is cut off from the needs of ordinary residents. I realized that the assembly was alienated from residents.

Local autonomy was in a shambles.

One big problem with local autonomy is that power and taxpayers' money are concentrated in the city government, which dominates the assembly.

After I was first elected to the Kanagawa prefectural assembly, a prefectural worker came over to me a few days before I was scheduled to ask questions at the assembly. He gave me a draft of questions that the prefectural government thought were suitable for me to ask. I told him that I had questions of my own, so I would draft the questions myself. The employee was upset and told me that I might not have "a political future."

For instance, only mayors have the right to propose a budget and summon the assembly. But the assembly is an independent body and should be given a wider mandate, because it represents the people.

The Diet is debating a set of bills to give more power to local governments, but there is little discussion on changes in the relationship between prefectural and city governments and local assemblies. Unless assemblies are given more power, there will be no true local autonomy.

One of NET's roles is to inform the public about what is lacking in the local political system.

One of NET's rules restricts members to two terms. Why?

We consider this two-terms rule essential in our political activities, although some members dropped out because of it. This is to give as many people as possible a chance to enter politics.

The biggest reason why the state of politics is so poor is that people are indifferent. Apathy is dangerous in a democracy. If there are a lot of people who are willing to pay taxes, but are indifferent to politics, the situation can be easily exploited.

The quickest way to change politics is to increase the number of people who are interested and involved.

I was a city assembly member for two terms and am serving my second term in the prefectural assembly, so this will be my last term. But I have never thought that being a politician is the only way to get involved in politics. Politics is inseparable from people's everyday lives.

What is the role of local parties vis-a-vis national parties?

Local parties, like us, can be a driving force to change Japanese politics.

A national party has its limitations. Often it is not possible to apply the same law to communities with different demographic, economic, geographical and other conditions.

Many political issues are inseparable from regional considerations, such as welfare, garbage, water and urban planning. You cannot produce a one-size-fits-all policy to cover all communities. That is why we need more local parties to tackle local issues.

Women's political participation is inseparable from their participation in social and economic activities. For instance, in many Scandinavian countries, women gained political power as they took up paid work. You have many housewives in your membership. What implications does this have? What can you do to remove the ingrained inequality between men and women?

Housewives were part of the system created to pursue economic growth after World War II.

Japanese women have failed to win full equality with men because women were divided--between housewives and those working outside the home. Japanese women face a big challenge in harnessing the two forces to realize full gender quality. It is not fair to criticize housewives as indulgent and think that only working women are participating as full members of society.

When a vigorous economy demanded more workers, Japan took a very different strategy from the labor policies adopted by Scandinavian countries, where women were encouraged to join the workforce. In Japan, a system was created to force men to do twice the work, by paying them a salary for two people. And to force women to serve as housewives, the government introduced various benefits, such as tax reductions and dependent allowances, but all those benefits went to the husbands.

Sometimes, housewives are used as a valve to adjust the workforce. It is not true that housewives do not work, as many of them work part-time for low pay and under precarious working conditions.

And unpaid work, such as child rearing and efforts to secure safe food and water, cannot be measured financially. It is not reflected in the gross national product or gross domestic product under our prevailing value system. But we should change that value system because unpaid work is absolutely necessary for our lives. It should be properly recognized and shared by men and women. Without changes in our value system and the sharing of unpaid work, there will be no gender equality.

• Family values working against female participation