The first Lower House election in the postwar period, held on April 10, 1946, was a significant milestone for women's political participation in Japan. Some 13.8 million women cast ballots for the first time and 39 female candidates were elected, accounting for 8.4 percent of the seats in the Lower House. Today, the percentage of female members of the Lower House stands at 10.2 percent, a mere 2 percent rise after more than seven decades. Clearly, progress on this front has been far too slow.
When discussing women's participation in society, the oft-used indicator is the annual gender gap report compiled by the World Economic Forum. The 2018 report ranked Japan at 110th out of 149 countries. This was the result of the scores in the four main fields — "economic participation and opportunity," "education attainment," "health and survival," and "political empowerment." The breakdown of the scores show that when it comes to women in parliament, Japan ranks 130th out of 149 nations, indicating that the biggest factor pushing down Japan's overall ranking is the area of political empowerment.
Turning to the most recent Upper House election on July 21, a record 28 women won seats, matching the figure in the previous election in 2016. But the success rate for female candidates dropped to 22.6 percent from 23.1 percent three years ago because the number of seats contested in the latest poll was three more than in 2016.