Women account for less than 30% of candidates competing in the July 20 election for the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of parliament.

A total of 522 people filed their candidacies Thursday, when the official campaign period for the triennial Upper House election started. Of them, 152, or 29.1%, are women.

Both the number of female candidates and their share were the second highest on record for an Upper House election, after 181 and 33.2% in the previous 2022 poll.