tokyo after a sexism row sparked by tokyo olympics chiefs saying women talked too much at meetings japans ruling party wants women at key meetings but only if they dont talkthe ruling liberal democratic party has proposed a new plan that allows five female lawmakers to join the partys key meetings as observerstoshihiro nikai the partys 82yearold secretary general said on tuesday that he heard criticism that the partys board is maledominated but added that the board members are electedbut it is important for the partys female members to look at the partys decisionmaking process he saidit is important to fully understand what kind of discussions are happening take a look is what it is about nikai said at a news conference late on tuesdaythose female observers cant speak during the meetings but can submit opinions separately to the secretariat office the daily newspaper nikkei reportedyoshiro mori the head of the tokyo 2020 olympic organising committee resigned last week after derogatory comments about women speaking too much at meetings and making them too long triggered backlash at home and abroadthe 83yearold former prime ministers remarks are one of the examples that show how deep rooted sexism is in japanese societyjapan is ranked 121st out of 153 countries on the world economic forums 2020 global gender gap index the worst ranking gap among advanced countries scoring poorly on womens economic participation and political empowermentthis week a group of female lawmakers at the liberal democratic party asked nikai to increase the ratio of women in key posts at the partybut requiring female observers at meetings to remain quiet has drawn criticism on social media that the party is out of touchtwitter users say the partys malecentric view has not changed since the mori controversypeople will just put women on them as a kind of pr exercise belinda wheaton a cultural sociologist at the university of waikato in new zealand told reuters i think its probably time to be asking questions as to why it is that we feel that men in their 70s or 80s are able to fulfil these roles better versus a man in their 40s or 50s or a woman wheaton saidalso making the rounds on social media were comments by kengo sakurada head of a powerful japanese business lobby who said japans glass ceiling was partly womens fault