Women account for fewer 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.
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