2026 POLLS: Share of Female Candidates Hits Record High

Tokyo, Jan. 28 (Jiji Press)--The share of women in all candidates in Japan's House of Representatives election next month stands at 24.4 pct, up 1.0 percentage point from the previous Lower House poll in October 2024 and marking a record high for a general election in the country.

The number of women who ran in the Feb. 8 election for the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, totals 313, down by one from an all-time high of 314 in the 2024 election.

By political party, the proportion of female candidates is highest at Sanseito, at 43.2 pct, followed by Reiwa Shinsengumi, at 38.7 pct, the Japanese Communist Party, at 38.1 pct, and the Social Democratic Party, at 33.3 pct. Sanseito fielded 82 women in the forthcoming election, Reiwa Shinsengumi 12, the JCP 67 and the SDP five.

The country's law to promote gender equality in politics calls on political parties and organizations to make the numbers of male and female candidates in elections as equal as possible.

In its fifth gender equality program, the government aimed to raise the share of female candidates in a Lower House election to 35 pct in 2025. The target has never been met.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]