(Bloomberg) — A daughter of the famous Japanese shareholder activist Yoshiaki Murakami has started a politics training school for young women mainly funded by the family’s investment firms, as it seeks to encourage more of them to enter a field in the country that has long been dominated by men.
Almost 200 people applied for 10 to 20 available openings in the school’s nine-day program, which comes with a 1 million yen ($7,190) scholarship, Murakami Family Foundation President Rei Murakami Frenzel said in an interview Monday. The 28-year-old daughter of Yoshiaki launched the school in August, which will be operated by the foundation. Its first lecture was held over the weekend.
Rei Murakami has previously voiced concern about the lack of female representation in Japanese politics. Women held just 9.7% of seats in the more powerful lower house of Japan’s parliament at the start of this year. That’s far below the global average of 26.1%, putting it 165th out of 188 countries, according to a report from the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Prominent female lawmakers will give lectures at the academy, including former Defense Minister Tomomi Inada and Seiko Noda, who has more than three decades of experience in politics.
Yoshiaki Murakami is considered the father of activist investing in Japan. He was arrested for insider trading in 2006 and later convicted and sentenced to prison, which was suspended on appeal. He was forced to close his multibillion-dollar fund but later returned to investing.
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