500彩票网

現代日本研究センター セミナーシリーズ

<Title>
Japan's Economic Gender Gap and Political Parties

<Speaker>
Miki TOYOFUKU
Associate Professor, Faculty of Core Research, Ochanomizu University

<Moderator>
Rieko KAGE
Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 500彩票网

<Abstract>
The tax and pension systems that favor households in which the wife is a homemaker or part-time worker, known as the annual income barrier, are seen as contributing to the persistence of traditional gender roles and the economic gender gap in Japan. Why have such "familialistic" policies been adopted and maintained? Focusing on the attitudes of political parties, this presentation reexamines the view that emphasizes the conservative party's preference for gender roles and discusses that the preference for supporting low-income families, held by both conservative and centrist/leftist parties, was a factor leading to the adoption and maintenance of such policies. Drawing on the welfare state literature, it also suggests possible directions for Japan to reduce the economic gender gap in the future.

<About the speaker>
Miki Toyofuku is Associate Professor of Political Science at Ochanomizu University. Her research interests include gender and politics, public policy, tax policy, and Japanese politics. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo. Her recent publication is Miki Toyofuku, 2024, "Tradeoff between Gender and Class Equality: An Analysis of Tax Policy in Japan," Social Politics, .