"Madonnas," "Assassins," and "Girls": How Female Politicians Respond to Media Labels Reflecting Party Leader Strategy

In Japan, when women have entered elections in large numbers, the tendency has been to label them. For example, in 1987, as the Japanese Socialist Party (JSP) began supporting women activists, wives of labor union leaders, and daughters of former assembly members for office in the local unified election, it was labeled the “Madonna Strategy” (sakusen). Then when Doi Takako, the first female party head, led ten Socialist women candidates to victory in the 1989 Upper House election, it was dubbed the “Madonna Boom” (būmu). As we shall see, Madonna is most commonly interpreted as meaning “maternal,” while “boom” indicates a temporary fad that bursts onto the scene. Similarly, in 2005, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Prime Minister Koizumi Junichirō (2001-2006) hand-picked several glamorous, successful career women to act as so-called “assassins” (shikaku) in districts where “postal rebels” were running.1 These women were not the only “assassins,” but they received a large amount of media attention. “Assassin” indicates a sneak attack reflecting Koizumi’s electoral strategy. Finally, in the 2009 Lower House election, the twenty-six first-term Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) women politicians were called Ozawa’s “girls” (gāruzu) referencing the President of the DPJ who supported their nomination. The label “girls” clearly casts these female candidates as dependent, if not subservient.