Photo/Illutration Renho, center, a candidate from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, addresses her supporters after her victory is declared in the July 10 Upper House election. (Hiroaki Takeda)

A record 35 women, or 28 percent of all 125 victorious candidates, were elected in the July 10 Upper House election.

This topped the previous record of 28, achieved in both the 2016 and 2019 Upper House elections.

Around a third, or 13, come from the ruling Liberal Democrat Party, accounting for 21 percent of the party’s successful candidates.

Nine were fielded by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), making up 53 percent of the party’s elected candidates.

Three were from Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), who accounted for 25 percent of the Osaka-based party's winning candidates.

Komeito, the LDP's junior coalition partner, the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) each had two female candidates elected. They made up 15 percent, 50 percent and 40 percent of the respective parties' victorious candidates.

The average age of all successful candidates was 56.6. The oldest elected candidate was 80, while the youngest was 37.

Voter turnout was 52.05 percent, up 3.25 percent from the 2019 Upper House election, according to the internal affairs ministry.

However, that was the fourth-lowest turnout among all post-war Upper House elections, despite being higher than the 2019 election, which was the second-lowest Upper House election turnout since the end of World War II.

There were 124 seats contested for regular six-year terms, plus one seat fought in a by-election.

The LDP won 63, more than half of the seats contested, adding eight more to its pre-election numbers.

The election brought the ruling parties’ seats to 146, including those that were not contested in this election.

The ruling parties will continue holding more than half of the 248 Upper House seats.

The LDP’s successful candidates comprise 45 elected in electoral districts and 18 in the proportional representation constituency.

The party won around 18.2 million votes in the proportional representation constituency, about 544,000 more than in the 2019 election, meaning it won 34 percent of all votes cast in the proportional representation constituency.

The CDP won 17 seats, six fewer than before the election.

There were 10 elected in electoral districts and seven in the proportional representation constituency.

Around 6.7 million votes, or about 13 percent, were cast for the CDP in the proportional representation constituency, down about 1.1 million from the 2019 election.

The total number of seats held by parties supportive of constitutional revision is now 177, taking into account the seats not contested in the July 10 election.

This is more than 166--a two-thirds majority of the Upper House.

A proposal to revise the Constitution needs to be approved by at least a two-third majority in both the Lower and Upper houses.

The pro-revision parties are the LDP and Komeito, as well as Nippon Ishin and DPP, the opposition parties keen on discussing the constitutional revision in the Diet.

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