Japan: a man’s world, with a record number of women running for election

Of the 273 candidates running in the July 21 upper house election, 82 are women, mostly from opposition parties

But anxieties over national security and the dominance of China may overshadow the likelihood of women voting along gender lines

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Mizuho Fukushima, chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party and a member of the House of Councillors.

Published: 7:42pm, 18 Jun 2019Updated: 12:03am, 19 Jun 2019

Nearly one in three candidates contesting Japan’s upper house election next month is a woman, a record number in a country with one of the world’s worst rates of female political representation.

Of the 273 candidates running in the July 21 election, where 124 seats across the country are being contested, 82 are women – accounting for 30 per cent of candidates and surpassing the previous record of 27.6 per cent seen in the 2001 upper house election.

Japan has one of the widest gender gaps in the world, with the World Economic Forum ranking the nation 110th out of 149 countries in its gender equality index last year.

To address the dismal rates of women in politics, the nation passed the Gender Parity Law last May.

Japan’s House of Councillors. Photo: Kyodo

Of the opposition parties, the Social Democratic Party has been the most aggressive in selecting female candidates, although it is hampered by its small size. Four of its six candidates are women.