A record 36 women won seats Sunday in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, raising hopes they can help change Japan's male-dominated political world.

Women now comprise some 30 percent of the 127-member legislature, up from about 20 percent, or 25 seats, before the election.

That's higher than the 9.9 percent average calculated for prefectural assemblies across Japan late last year. A record 65 of the 259 candidates fielded for Tokyo's election were women.