Increasing the number of female politicians may be the key to encouraging Japanese women to continue working after marriage and creating a gender-equal society in Japan, Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Lena Hjelm-Wallen said.

To establish better policies regarding the family, Hjelm-Wallen said it is important that there be many female politicians because they can talk from experience.

"But I sometimes wonder if it is the question of the hen or the egg," Hjelm-Wallen told The Japan Times in a recent interview, pointing out that the two elements are mutually dependent on each other.

Sweden is well-known for its high rate of working women. For instance, of 349 lawmakers in Sweden's Parliament, 151 are female.

To encourage women to continue working, Hjelm-Wallen, who was on a five-day visit to Japan last week, said governments need to create a tax system that taxes the individual instead of the household. "It is difficult for women to keep working if their salary is counted together with the husband's."

In Japan, husbands cannot receive income tax deductions or additional benefits if the salaries of their wives exceed a certain amount, which in most cases is around 1 million yen a year.

Experts say this system discourages women from working longer hours since they tend to adjust their working time so their husbands can receive benefits.

In addition to government policies, Hjelm-Wallen, a member of the Social Democratic Party, said one of the most important things is to change people's thinking.

"That is a huge task," she admitted.

She said Sweden experienced heated debate in the 1960s and '70s over changing attitudes toward working women, as skeptics said the government was making changes too fast.

"I remember that a well-known lady from my party wrote a book in the 70s saying that the way of living of old wives must be respected," Hjelm-Wallen said. "She said she didn't like the way young women came to Parliament saying that the more natural way of living is for women to have professional work."

It was difficult for women to change their way of thinking on the issue and even more difficult for men, she reflected.

It was not until the 1980s that the possibilities for women to work in Sweden increased, the deputy prime minister said.

"People began to get used to getting two salaries (per household), and it was difficult for them to go back (to one)," Hjelm-Wallen said.

At the same time, women were attaining a higher level of education and being a housewife was not an attractive option anymore, she said.

"But what we try to do as politicians is not to say what people should do but to provide an environment for them to do both."

Still, she said, contrary to popular belief, Sweden is no paradise and there are still steps that need to be taken in the future.

Although Sweden is facing a labor shortage due to the accelerating aging of society, she said young parents who have small children should be allowed to have shorter working hours so they can take care of their offspring.

However, Sweden has been tackling the issue of gender equality since the 1930s, she noted. Its accomplishments were not achieved in a short period of time.

"Japan is trying to catch up with a lot of things in such a short time," Hjelm-Wallen said. "But it takes one step at a time to achieve the goal."