Event

Why is women’s political representation in Japan so low, and what can be done to increase it? In this talk, Daniel M. Smith will provide an overview of the state of women’s representation in Japan, and present new experimental research on the role of information in voters’ evaluations of female candidates. Low-information elections hinder the success of female candidates, especially where party-based cues are weak, as in the open-list proportional representation elections for Japan’s House of Councillors. A pair of survey experiments conducted during recent election campaigns reveals that providing biographical information about candidates, as well as making preference voting compulsory, significantly increases the share of votes for female candidates. The results highlight how seemingly simple changes in election laws can significantly increase women’s representation in preferential voting systems.

Daniel M. Smith is the Gerald L. Curtis Visiting Associate Professor of Modern Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy in the Department of Political Science and School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. His research focuses on political representation in democracies such as Japan, especially how institutions such as electoral systems affect voting behavior and the demographic backgrounds and behavior of political elites.