Sonoko Takatsuki is optimistic that equality is slowly improving

Sonoko Takatsuki, 51, is circumspect about the poor showing of her gender among the candidates in Sunday's elections.

For the first time in almost a quarter of a century, the number of female candidates in a Japanese election will be lower than in the previous poll.

Ms Takatsuki said the weak position of women was not limited to the country's administration.

I think there are more pressing non-gender issues that have to be dealt with, such as deflation, unemployment, Iraq and North Korea Sonoko Takatsuki

"The proportion of women in executive positions (throughout Japan's workforce) are some of the lowest in the developed world. It's a legacy of a past generation who felt women's place was at home," she said.

Only 3% of the ruling party's candidates are women, and just 7.3% of current lower house lawmakers are female, ranking Japan near the bottom of international league tables on parliamentary gender equality.

But Ms Takatsuki, a writer and translator who has recently worked on David Beckham's autobiography My Side, was optimistic that the situation was improving.

"The governors of Osaka and Chiba are women, so are the foreign minister, the environment minister and the head of public safety. These are very important positions and signs that times are changing," she said.

"Things have changed a lot in the last 30-40 years. Back then women stayed at home. Now more women go to high school and university than men. Women work until they have children and many work afterwards too."

But she stressed that while the legal infrastructure was in place to improve women's place in society, there was still not the appetite to see women's rights reinforced.

"Equal opportunities, wages and many other gender discrimination issues were dealt with in the late 80s... However, other factors stop women from benefiting from them. One typical example is pressure from boss and colleagues at work," she said.

But there are "more pressing non-gender issues... such as deflation, unemployment, Iraq and North Korea," that have to be dealt with first, Ms Takatsuki added.

"These are currently the most important issues for Japan. That isn't to say there aren't improvements for women that must be made," she said.

Slowly, slowly

Ms Takatsuki said that in Japanese politics, generally, there was a public desire for change, but that it was a slow process.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated Japan's politics for the last 50 years.

"In the UK, people support the government if the economy is going well. If the economy is bad then the opposition is elected. In Japan, somehow this isn't the case. Good or bad they always vote for the LDP," she said.

Major economic reform in Japan would mean rising joblessness and even greater temporary instability in a nation which has long counted on life-time employment.

"Maybe (the electorate) were scared of change or they felt their interests were protected by LDP politicians. But people are desperate for change now, though I still sense that many people aren't willing to face the risk of big change," she said.

In the same way that economic reform can bring pain, Ms Takatsuki noted an improvement in women's rights was not necessarily all good.