Photo/Illutration Sakura Uchikoshi shares her happiness with supporters after she was projected to be the winner of an Upper House seat in Niigata’s Chuo Ward on July 21. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)

Although the recent Upper House election fell far short of gender equity on the ballot, female voters showed their strength at the ballot box, helping propel 28 female candidates to victory on July 21.

Analysis of an Asahi Shimbun exit poll in seven of the 32 single-seat constituencies, where female candidates won the seats, showed that strong support from women was behind their victories.

Sakura Uchikoshi, 51, a unified candidate of the opposition parties, who ran as a new independent, beat a male incumbent of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who was seeking his third term in a single-seat constituency in Niigata Prefecture.

According to an Asahi Shimbun exit poll conducted on Election Day, less than half of male voters said they voted for Uchikoshi, while 54 percent of women voted for her.

By age, Uchikoshi won the support of each generation of women, except for those aged 70 and older. While 32 percent of men in their 20s said they voted for her, 64 percent of women in their 20s backed her.

As for voters in their 30s, 34 percent of men and 56 percent of women supported Uchikoshi. Of those in their 40s, 43 percent of men and 56 percent of women voted for her.

Uchikoshi looked back on the strong support she drew from women in her election campaign.

“Women who were holding kids talked to me saying, ‘Fight on’ and many women asked to shake my hand,” said Uchikoshi who had grappled with social issues such as discrimination toward female applicants for medical schools, domestic violence and child abuse as a lawyer. “I think that I was able to gain support from women because I spoke on compelling issues close to our daily lives."

Niigata Prefecture is not the only electoral district where female voters had a major impact on the election results.

In six of the seven single-seat electoral districts--Niigata, Miyagi, Akita, Shiga, Mie and Ehime prefectures--female candidates defeated male candidates. In Fukushima Prefecture, both ruling and opposition parties fielded female candidates.

In the six electoral districts, female candidates gained strong support from female constituents, especially from in their 30s, regardless of whether the candidates were backed by ruling or opposition parties.

The results of the election showed that if political parties field female candidates, female voters will respond positively in backing them. Thus, it is possible that more female candidates could be on the ballot in the next Lower House election, which will be held by October 2021.

The July 21 Upper House election was the first national election after a new law to promote gender equity took effect last May, requiring political parties to make every effort to field an equal number of male and female candidates in national and local elections.

Although a record 28 women won seats, the same number as in the last Upper House election in 2016, accounting for 23 percent of all successful candidates, the number is still far from achieving gender equity.