Persistent gender gap and use of social media key takeaways from Okinawa votes

Local election activity in Okinawa Prefecture reached new heights on Sept. 11, with multiple municipal elections held simultaneously with the gubernatorial election for the first time in the prefecture’s history.

The number of female candidates and winners in the 24 municipal assembly elections increased from previous polls, but the 49 women who got seats still represented only 14% of the total number of winners.

Another trend was that in the election campaigns, candidates increasingly used social media to present their policies to young people.

Why so few women?

While women are advancing in various sectors of society, a large gender gap remains in the political arena.

Yumi Nakasone, 36, from the town of Chatan, and Saki Yonaha, 37, from the village of Yomitan, were both elected for the first time in their respective municipal assemblies and are among the female politicians looking to change the low levels of women's political representation in Okinawa.

Nakasone and Yonaha met last year while supporting the same candidate in the Chatan mayoral election. In the latest assembly elections, the two cooperated with each other by holding joint stump speeches in both areas, and when using social media.

Yonaha, who was a nursery school teacher at a village-run facility, decided to run for office because she wanted to create an education system that better respects children's rights.

In July, she submitted a petition to the village asking for free school lunches. However, at an assembly meeting, a male member said, “When the (paid) system is working, is it necessary to make waves (by making it free of charge)?”

Hearing that blunt reply from the assemblyman, Yonaha said she thought nothing would change if discussions are held only from the perspective of older men. She was convinced that the village assembly needed women and people of child-rearing age.

While researching the reasons for the lack of women in politics, she learned that in some communities in Okinawa only the heads of households are allowed to run and vote in community group leadership elections. This creates a structural problem in which community activities are led mostly by men, she said.

“The reason why the number of female politicians and voter turnout haven’t grown is because politics has been reserved for a small circle of people,” she said. “We need to change the way elections are held.”

Yonaha secured a seat in the Yomitan Village Assembly by getting the most votes, with the support of her friends and parents of children at her nursery school, rather than relying on organizational voting. She hopes to see more cooperation in politics among the child-rearing generation.

For Nakasone, campaigning for an election while juggling the daily routines involved in raising her three young children was an exhausting experience.

She couldn’t get enough sleep as her baby cried at night and needed to be breastfed. In the mornings, she had to take her children to a nursery school, so she could take to the streets to campaign only after the morning commuting rush was over, at around 9:30 a.m. “I was really pushed to the edge,” she said of her struggle, even acknowledging the help she got from her supporters.

But the experience gave her confidence, and hope for greater participation in politics by fellow members of the child-rearing generation.

“I had no (organizational) backing, but I could produce results with the support of citizens. I think this experience will be useful for other people who say, ‘I want to run for office, too,’” Nakasone said.

Easing the burden

Ema Maeda, 69, who won a seat in the Ginoza Village Assembly for the third time, is the only woman in the assembly. When she first decided to run for office, eight years ago, a man in her community said to her, “What can a woman do?” Determined to tackle such views, she told herself she would change the culture of male dominance.

When Maeda first became an assembly member, those in section chief positions and above at the village office were all men. At assembly meetings, she has appealed for measures to promote gender equality and to deal with the issue of “period poverty,” or a state in which women in financial hardship can’t afford to buy sanitary items. She was stunned to learn that the sanitary napkins stocked as emergency supplies at the village office had not been replaced for years.

During the latest election campaign, many residents rushed to listen to her when she was giving speeches. For the first time, she felt people respond to her calls for the status of women to be improved.

To increase female representation in the assembly, Maeda is advocating the introduction of a quota system that will allocate a certain number of seats to women.

“In the first place, women are expected to play the significant roles of mothers and wives at home. We need to remove that heavy burden women are forced to bear by society,” she said.

Harnessing social media

Ryo Matayoshi, 39, who was re-elected as a Ginowan Municipal Assembly member in the recent votes, turned to social media to campaign. He wanted to get his message across to voters but didn’t see the point of hand-waving and asking random passersby for votes.

While making rounds to greet people, Matayoshi asked people he met to connect with his official Line account. Using the messaging app, he has introduced policies including a plan to provide a city subsidy for fertility treatment, and volunteer activities such as in preventing water-related accidents and picking up trash.

He targets different messages at different social media platforms. On Line, which has a large number of users, he shares his public activities, such as questions he asks during municipal assembly sessions.

On Instagram, which is often used by younger people, he says 80% of the content is lighthearted but 20% of the posts are serious. “Viewers share them with their acquaintances, saying, ‘There is this interesting municipal assembly member.’” The most read content was viewed by 2,090 people.

The Facebook posts, which he uses to convey his thoughts to close supporters, feature content that is somewhere between the two. He also uses different wording for each platform.

People who had not come across his messages on social media asked him if he was just engaging in volunteer activities rather than campaigning for the election. “I was also anxious about the faceless nature of the campaign,” he said. But he managed to get re-elected with 1,345 votes, coming in 21st out of 26 seats up for grabs.

Now that more people are working from home, Matayoshi feels that calling out his name using loudspeakers in communities may be a nuisance. He believes the use of social media in elections will only expand in the future. “For legislators, social media has become a tool that cannot be ignored. I hope my messages on social media will get people to take an interest in politics,” he said.

‘A waste not to use it’

Chofu Zukeran, 29, who was elected for the first time to the Nanjo Municipal Assembly with 2,407 votes — the highest number — said he put most of his efforts into offline activities to gather votes. “I think spreading the word through social media will be a weapon once we have a solid foundation.”

During the campaign, he used Twitter and Instagram to livestream street speeches and a ceremony wrapping up his campaigning on the night before the election. Because social media posts can be viewed by anyone, he says he couldn’t be sure if voters were watching even if the number of views increased.

However, his posts have generated fans, and some have even joined the campaign. Even if the viewers were not necessarily voters, their presence was encouraging. “Social media can expand connections. It would be a waste if we don’t use it,” Zukeran said.

In the Nago Municipal Assembly election, young candidates who made full use of the latest tools to promote their policies won with high numbers of votes. Campaign teams that have lagged in the use of social media are feeling a sense of crisis.

“The only thing voters will remember from street speeches is probably the candidate’s name,” said a campaign manager in his 60s who worked with a successful candidate. “Social media can reach a wide audience with text messages, and it will become a mainstream tool in election campaigns.”

A veteran Nago assembly member who was re-elected in the latest election said social media is the greatest weapon for communicating policies. “I feel like our generation, who cannot make full use of smartphones, is going to be kicked out.”

The assemblyman has entrusted use of social media to his staff, but how things worked out didn't match the outcomes seen when such content is handled by the younger generation, he said.

On the other hand, he also believes in the importance of meeting with people. “I still think face-to-face meetings are the best way to collect votes.”

This section features topics and issues from Okinawa covered by The Okinawa Times, a major newspaper in the prefecture. The original articles were published Sept. 14 and Sept. 16.