戦後期鳥取県における女性議員の誕生 : 初の女性代議士田中たつ

Abstract

It is well-known that the first post-war Lower House general election of 1946, since which Japanese women have been enfranchised up until now, resulted in 39 out of 79 female candidates being elected Japan’s first women member of Lower House. These represented 8. 4% of total seats and the rate was considered to be the highest level in the world those days. In the next Lower House general election of 1947, however, the proportion of the women member surprisingly plummeted, namely, seats by women to 15 and its percentage of total to 3. 2%. And since the year of 1947, women’s share in politics has subsequently been remaining low level in Japan. This paper firstly introduces one of the foregoing 39 female election winners, Tatsu Tanaka from Tottori Prefecture, by tracing her biography and clarifying the motives and background behind her candidacy. Through discussing and analyzing the findings, this paper also identifies the factors for the long-standing delay in Japanese women’s advancement into politics.