• Kiyoteru Tsutsui Professor, Sociology/Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
• Charles Crabtree Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Dartmouth College

• Kenneth Mori McElwain Professor, Institute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo

Recent years have seen issues around gender discrimination occupy prominent space in Japan’s political debates. From same-sex marriage to married couples’ last names, conservatives offer arguments in defense of the status quo while progressives call for changes to empower women and LGBTQ communities. Where is the public opinion on those issues, and what type of framing might move it? We answer these questions in an experimental survey on same-sex marriage, married couples’ last names, and female representation in the Diet and corporate boards. The results show that the Japanese public generally supports women’s advancement in society, pointing to a need for changes in the selection mechanism for candidates for critical positions. On same-sex relations, bias against them remains more persistent, especially among older generations, but support increases when the issue is framed in terms of human rights.

Kiyoteru Tsutsui is Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor of Japanese Studies, Deputy Director of the Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center (APARC), Director of the Japan Program at APARC, Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, and Professor of Sociology, all at Stanford University.

Charles Crabtree is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. He is also an affiliate faculty in the Department of Eastern European, Eurasian, and Russian Studies, the Department of Sociology, the Program in Social Science, and the Arthur L. Irving Institute. He is, at the same time, a Senior Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research.