Less than a fifth of candidates in Japan’s upcoming election are female, unchanged from the last vote four years ago, indicating the percentage of women in one of the world’s most male-dominated parliaments is unlikely to increase.
More than 1,000 candidates are running for 465 seats in the Oct. 31 election but only 186 are female, data released early Wednesday showed. While an unprecedented two out of four candidates in a vote for leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party last month were women, efforts to improve gender parity in national politics have made scant progress.
As in the past, a strong result for the LDP is likely to mean fewer women take up seats in the lower chamber. Less than 10% of LDP candidates are female, compared with more than 18% for the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. The Japanese Communist Party has the highest proportion of female candidates, at about 35%.