Actual Condition of Appointing Female Agricultural Committee after Transition to New Structure

Abstract

The Japanese government, in accordance with The Fourth Gender Equality Basic Plan、expected to increase to 30% the women’s participation in policy-taking processes in all sectors by 2020. In alignment with national policy, the Agricultural Commissions now need to make efforts such as setting goals to accept more women as their members.

Since April 2016, the number of the Agricultural Commissioners has shrunk sharply and the election system applying mutatis mutandis of the public offices election act was abolished. After this change, the number of the Agricultural Commissioners decreased from 30,060 people to 25,277 people.

However, the number of the female members in the Agricultural Commissioners increased from 2,655 (7.5%) to 2,758 (11.8%). This increase is due to the law which requires that more than one “neutral members”, that is, a legally established member who is not farmers and not stakeholders on the Agricultural Committee, be admitted in each Agricultural Committee.

This paper examines how the women are being accepted as members in the agricultural Commissioners, by comparing the number of female Agricultural Commissioners in several prefectures, as well as studying the evolution of the female participation in the Agricultural Committees in Niigata Prefecture. The selection process for the female members and changes observed in the female members after their admission also are discussed.