Photo/Illutration The floor of the Nagano prefectural assembly hall on April 3 (Ryo Suganuma)

A record 316 female candidates won seats in the April 9 unified elections for prefectural assemblies, which was significantly higher than the previous unified local elections in 2019, when 237 emerged victorious.

But the figure still only accounts for 14 percent of the 2,260 seats, though it was higher than the 10.4 percent in the previous unified local elections.

Of the 316 winners, the highest number of victorious female candidates was recorded in Kanagawa Prefecture, with 19. 

That was followed by Hokkaido with 17, Saitama Prefecture with 15 and Chiba Prefecture with 14.

The Asahi Shimbun conducted a survey of local assemblies on gender disparity as of Jan. 1.

The survey showed that the Yamanashi and Kumamoto prefectural assemblies had the fewest female members, with one each.

This time, however, two female candidates won in Yamanashi Prefecture and five were victorious in Kumamoto Prefecture.

Of the 316 winners, 68 belong to the Liberal Democratic Party, 50 to the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, 43 to the Japanese Communist Party, 28 to Komeito, 11 to Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) and 95 ran as an independent.

The JCP led the ratio of successful female candidates of the political parties with 57.3 percent, while the LDP had the least with 5.9 percent.

In the prefectural assembly elections, 489 candidates, or 15.6 percent, were female.

The ratio was a record high and a jump from the previous elections’ ratio, which was 12.7 percent.

Nonetheless, the ratio fell far below the central government’s goal of 35 percent.

The unified local elections are held once every four years. This time, the first phase of the elections started on March 23 with gubernatorial races in nine prefectures.

The elections will continue until late April. Approximately 980 elections in 41 prefectures will be held during that time.

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