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. In the Feb. 8 election, the proportion of female candidates is lowest at 5.6 pct at a political organization established recently by former internal affairs minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi and Takashi Kawamura, former mayor of the central Japan city of Nagoya, followed by 12.8 pct at the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and 14.6 pct at the Japan Innovation Party, the LDP’s new coalition partner. The figure for the LDP, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, is down 3.3 points from the previous Lower House election. Takaichi, who took office last October, is Japan’s first female prime minister. In its campaign platform for the Feb. 8 election, the LDP said it aims to raise the share of its female lawmakers to 30 pct by 2033. The number of women who stand for the election totals one at the group formed by Haraguchi and Kawamura, 43 at the LDP and 13 at the JIP. The opposition Centrist Reform Alliance put up 47 female candidates, or 19.9 pct of its total candidates. The Democratic Party for the People, another opposition party, fielded 26 women, or 25.0 pct. The Centrist Reform Alliance was formed recently by the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, the LDP’s former coalition partner. The number of female candidates stands at five, or 25.0 pct, at the Conservative Party of Japan and at three, or 20.0 pct, at Team Mirai. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]