While calls have grown for gender equality in politics, a recent survey found that more than half of female assembly members in three Kyushu prefectures have faced sexual and other forms of harassment from voters, supporters, or fellow assembly members.
The text-based survey, conducted by Nishinippon Shimbun in February ahead of upcoming local elections, aimed questions at 240 female members of prefectural and municipal assemblies in Fukuoka, Saga and Nagasaki prefectures, receiving responses from 145 of them.
Among the respondents, 76 — more than half — answered that they had experienced or felt some kind of harassment recently or in the past.