Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, has appointed just one woman to his new cabinet, raising questions about his commitment to “make women shine” in business and public life.

But he claimed that the regional revitalisation minister, Satsuki Katayama, had “the presence of two or three women”.

Political parties are being tested over whether they are earnestly committed to gender equality in Japan’s male-dominated sphere of politics following a law enacted in late July.

The legislation was an “important step” forward for encouraging women’s participation in politics, said Fumio Kishida, chairman of the Policy Research Council of the governing Liberal Democratic Party.

The Global Gender Gap Report released in November 2017 by the World Economic Forum ranked Japan 114th out of 144 countries. This was a fall of three places from the previous year. The ranking is based on four categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Japan lagged particularly in the last of these categories, ranking 129th for women in parliament and 88th for women in ministerial positions.

Japan's parliament on Wednesday passed a law to encourage female candidates to stand for elections in a country where women are vastly underrepresented in politics.

Under the new law, political parties are urged to make the number of male and female candidates as equal as possible and are encouraged to set targets for gender parity.

But the law includes no penalties for parties that fail to do so, nor incentives to encourage them.

The Lower House moved to address the low representation of women in politics with a bill April 12 urging political parties to field male and female candidates in national and local assembly elections in equal numbers.

The proposed legislation could provide a long-needed incentive to get more women to enter politics. But whether the bill will rectify the disproportionate gender gap remains to be seen as the legislation comes with no punitive clause.

GIFU – Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Seiko Noda, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Sunday opened a political school in Gifu Prefecture to foster female politicians.

The school was set up in the city of Gifu, which she represents in the Diet’s all-important Lower House.

As a society bound by tradition, change comes slowly to Japan. That includes opportunities for women in politics and government.

Renho Murata became the first woman to lead the opposition Democratic Party in Japan after winning a leadership contest on September 15, 2016. By winning the leadership contest, Ms.