Political Interest or Interest in Politics

Abstract Like politics in other advanced democracies, Japanese politics is characterized by distinct differences in the behavior of men and women. For example, Japanese women manifest distinct partisan preferences that contrast with those of Japanese males. Most explanations for such gender differences in Japan involve the manner in which politics at the national level contrasts with traditional Japanese female roles, which combine to make Japanese women less interested in and more distant from politics than Japanese males. In this paper, we show that the political behavior of Japanese women has evolved throughout the postwar period in a way that renders traditional views of the gender gap in Japan suspect. Instead, we show that it is the distinctive issue preferences of Japanese females that lead to their specific patterns of party support and rejection.