An Abe Challenger Is Training Women to Crack Japan’s Male-Dominated Parliament
- Cabinet minister starts school for potential female lawmakers
- Seiko Noda faces long odds in September race to unseat Abe
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If Seiko Noda doesn’t achieve her quarter-century goal to become Japan’s first female prime minister, maybe one of the 70-odd women who filed into a conference room to hear her speak Sunday will.
The women -- smartly dressed, ages 15 to 69 -- comprised the inaugural class of Noda’s first-of-its-kind school for female politicians. Noda, 57, who’s Japan’s internal affairs minister and longshot candidate to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this year, plans to use the forum in her central Japanese constituency to prepare a new generation of women for the challenges of political leadership in the male-dominated society.