Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has joined more than 50 of her fellow female legislators to push for more ladies' toilets in parliament, saying recent increases in women's representation have led to long queues for the bathroom. Just two cubicles currently serve 73 female members at Tokyo's male-dominated House of Representatives, according to a petition filed by female members of parliament on December 12. One opposition lawmaker, Yasuko Komiyama, said there were often "long queues in front of the restroom... before plenary sessions start", and quoted another MP who said she had "given up" going to the toilet before a session began. There is one female toilet with two cubicles near the plenary chamber, though the entire building itself has nine female toilets with 22 cubicles. There are a total of 12 men's toilets with 67 stalls and urinals across the building, according to local media reports. The current situation is "often inconvenient" because female staff and visitors also share the toilets, said Ms Komiyama from the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party. "I want to raise my voice and prepare myself for the day when women hold more than 30% of [parliamentary seats] in the future," she wrote in a post on Facebook. Japan's parliament building was built in 1936, a decade before women were given the right to vote in 1945. The first women were appointed to parliament in 1946. The parliament building is a sprawling three-story structure, with a central portion that is nine storeys high. The building occupies 13,356 square metres (143,800 sq ft), the equivalent of about two football pitches, with a total floor area of 53,464 square metres. "If the administration is serious about promoting women's empowerment, I believe we can count on their understanding and cooperation," Komiyama said, according to Japanese media. Chair of the Lower House committee Yasukazu Hamada has "expressed a willingness" to consider the proposal for more women's toilets, said an Asahi Shimbun report. The Japanese government earlier set a target of having 30% of leadership roles across all sectors of society held by women by 2020, but at the end of that year the timeframe was quietly pushed back by a decade. Women currently hold nearly 16% of the seats in the Lower House and about a third – or 42 out of 125 seats – in the Upper House. Takaichi, who became Japan's first female leader in October last year, had pledged to raise female representation in her cabinet to levels comparable to Nordic countries, which hold the top spots in terms of female leadership. But she has appointed just two other women to her 19-member cabinet. In Japan, the dearth of women's restrooms extends beyond the legislative chamber. Long lines in front of women's public restrooms are a common sight nationwide. Japan is a culturally conservative country, where both politics and workplaces have long been dominated by older men. It also maintained its low position on the World Economic Forum's latest Global Gender Gap Index, ranking 118th out of 148 countries. — Agencies
