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.