80 years on, gender gap persists in Japanese politics
New research shows there has been little change since women in Japan first exercised their right to vote nearly 80 years ago
Gender equality in politics remains far from achieved across Japan’s 47 prefectures, research by a group of experts has shown as it released local index scores on International Women’s Day.
While nearly 80 years have passed since women in Japan first exercised their right to vote, the politics index fell in eight prefectures, including Kanagawa near Tokyo, from the 2024 figures, while many other prefectures also saw little change.
With a score of 1 representing full equality, Tokyo scored 0.386, ranking first for the fifth consecutive year, helped by a high percentage of women in the metropolitan and other local assemblies.
Yamagata and Osaka prefectures ranked second, both at 0.271, followed by Chiba and Kanagawa at 0.258 and 0.255, respectively.
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The House of Representatives election in February has not helped much to improve gender equality in politics, with women accounting for 14.6 per cent of all elected candidates, down 1.1 percentage points from the previous general election.
In 16 prefectures, the margin of improvement was 0.010 or smaller from the 2024 index, which had reflected the outcome of the nationwide local election the year before.