Women account for only 18% of prospective candidates in next Japan general election
Source: The Mainichi
TOKYO -- Women account for a mere 18.1% of prospective candidates to be fielded by Japan's six major political parties in the 289 single-seat constituencies in the next House of Representatives election, a Mainichi Shimbun survey has found.
The figure is only around half of the 35% target the government hopes to achieve by 2025, exposing the abysmal progress in promoting women's participation in Japanese politics despite legislative measures enacted in 2018. May 23 marked six years since the Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field, which aims to make the numbers of male and female candidates as even as possible in elections, came into force.
In its survey, the Mainichi Shimbun tallied and compared the proportions of women among the approximately 790 prospective candidates in the next general election that each of the six parties had announced by May 10. As the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will not unveil its list of candidates until the lower house is dissolved, the survey instead counted the number of female LDP branch heads released by the party's 47 prefectural chapters.
Read here the full article published by The Mainichi on 28 May 2024.
Image by The Mainichi
TOKYO -- Women account for a mere 18.1% of prospective candidates to be fielded by Japan's six major political parties in the 289 single-seat constituencies in the next House of Representatives election, a Mainichi Shimbun survey has found.
The figure is only around half of the 35% target the government hopes to achieve by 2025, exposing the abysmal progress in promoting women's participation in Japanese politics despite legislative measures enacted in 2018. May 23 marked six years since the Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field, which aims to make the numbers of male and female candidates as even as possible in elections, came into force.
In its survey, the Mainichi Shimbun tallied and compared the proportions of women among the approximately 790 prospective candidates in the next general election that each of the six parties had announced by May 10. As the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will not unveil its list of candidates until the lower house is dissolved, the survey instead counted the number of female LDP branch heads released by the party's 47 prefectural chapters.
Read here the full article published by The Mainichi on 28 May 2024.
Image by The Mainichi