Why hasn’t Japan been able to eliminate the perception that politics is a man’s world? Gender equality, women’s active participation in the workplace and female empowerment have taken root in society, but women’s participation in the all-important realm of politics remains sluggish. Is the problem structural or related to how society thinks? The election campaign for the House of Councillors that began on Thursday offers a good opportunity to explore issues related to women and politics.

Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial leaders are in Saskatchewan this week, but for the first time in years, the annual gathering won’t have women at the table.

“Symbolically, it’s very significant that there is no woman premier,” said Sylvia Bashevkin, a political-science professor at the University of Toronto, who researches women in politics and recently edited a book on the effect of women in the premier’s office.