Opposition to Women Political Leaders: Gender Bias and Stereotypes of Politicians Among Japanese Voters

ABSTRACT Women are extremely underrepresented in Japanese political life. One possible reason for this is that voters are biased against women. Compared to American voters, to what extent are Japanese voters opposed to women political leaders? What kinds of stereotypes do they have about women politicians? To answer these questions and probe the external validity of American studies on this topic, we conducted a survey that elicits respondents’ attitudes toward women political leaders. First, our list experiment outcomes revealed that approximately 10% of Japanese, and 20% of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) supporters, oppose a woman becoming prime minister. Second, we also identified respondents’ gender stereotypes by asking them directly about their impressions of politicians, which revealed that Japanese voters have strong stereotypes for men and women politicians regarding their policy areas of expertise and personal characteristics. These stereotypes are strongest among men and older voters as well as voters who support the LDP. Our findings have broad implications for the literature on gender and politics beyond the study of Japanese politics.