Dogen Ogata's name is known worldwide before he knows it himself. He's 8 months old. One day last month, in all innocence, cradled in his mother's arms, he attended a session of the Kumamoto municipal assembly.
Yuka Ogata, 42, is a member of the assembly. Dogen is not. The Washington Post described the scene as follows: "(Yuka) Ogata had hardly sat down before four men, including Chairman Yoshitomo Sawada, confronted her about bringing the baby into the chamber. A fifth man lingered behind them."
The gangsterish overtones are surely hyperbolic. But five years into an administration promoting "womenomics" and urging women to "shine" — because, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe piously declared in 2014, "If women shine, Japan will shine more and more" — Ogata's eviction (she later returned, having left the baby with a friend) highlighted something hollow at the core of the official feminism.