title: Förderer für die Gleichstellung der Geschlechter zwischen Präfektur und Kommune: Ein Beispiel für Bürgerpartizipation an dezentralen Implementierungsprozessen?
Creators: name: Holdgrün, Phoebe
Publisher: name: Fachinformationsdienst (FID) Asien
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Japan
subject: Politisches System
subject: Dezentralisation
subject: Geschlechterverhältnis
subject: Bürgerbeteiligung
subject: 323

description: Gender Equality Sponsors between Prefecture and Municipality: An Example of Bottom-Up Participation in Local Implementation Processes? With a case study on the implementation of the Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society (1999), this paper takes up the question of citizens’ bottom-up participation in local implementation processes. The Basic Law for a Gender-equal Society is of high significance for the aim to realize gender equality in Japan, but the successful outcome of its implementation remains uncertain. As Japan’s prefectures and municipalities are supposed to implement the Basic Law according to national guidelines and local needs, local implementation processes are of high importance for the policy outcome throughout Japan. The strong involvement of the regional and local level can be understood as a result of the decentralization reforms carried out in Japan since the 1990s. To strengthen the role of citizens in the political process is another aim of these reforms. The Basic Law itself emphasizes the goal of citizen participation in every realm of society as well. Therefore, citizens’ bottom-up participation in the political process could be an important factor in shaping the local policy outcome. Nevertheless, research on the role of citizens in case studies on other policies has shown that at this stage, citizen involvement in the political process does not go beyond that of agents to the local government: they seem to carry out tasks under top-down guidance rather than participate actively in decision making on implementation measures. Tsujinaka and Nishimura (2008) call this phenomenon of mere assistance to the implementation of policies »co-management«. This case study takes up the example of citizens that are assigned by the prefecture of Nagasaki as so-called »gender equality sponsors« to take part in the Basic Law’s implementation process. Based on the results of qualitative interviews with several implementation actors in the prefecture of Nagasaki in 2008, the paper discusses the potential of these citizens for bottom-up participation in the decision-making and implementation processes of gender equality policies. On the one hand, due to the prefecture’s top-down attitude, gender equality sponsors do indeed seem to act as mere agents for the prefecture as prescribed by the concept of co-management. On the other hand, formal assignment and options for action give the gender equality sponsors a stronger position at the municipal level. For example, taking part in local gender equality councils creates real opportunities for active participation in decision-making processes. As for the role of citizens in implementation processes, this case of citizens acting between the prefectural and the municipal level makes clear that their participation opportunities are quite different on each level. At the municipal level, activities by gender equality sponsors have a clear role in triggering first moves by municipalities to take action to implement the Basic Law, even if these activities fall short of a crucial contribution to a progressive policy outcome for gender equality on the local level.
description: Japan 2011 : Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 53