TOKYO: The number of women in Japan's powerful lower house has fallen after snap elections, results showed Tuesday (Feb 10), dealing a blow to already underrepresented women in male-dominated Japanese politics.
Sanae Takaichi tightened her grip on power on Sunday, four months after becoming Japan's first woman prime minister, but has shown little appetite for framing her leadership around gender.
Women now make up 15 per cent of lawmakers, winning 68 of 465 seats in the house of representatives -- down from 73 elected in 2024 -- in a vote that handed Takaichi's conservatives a historic landslide.
A record 24 per cent of candidates were women on Sunday, but that figure was just one percentage point up from 2024.
Hikaru Fujita stood for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) while pregnant and won against a veteran lawmaker, securing nearly half the votes in her district.
During her campaign in the central province of Nagano, she promised to support young people and women, and was personally endorsed by Takaichi when she announced her pregnancy.
In Japan, gender roles are rigid, with women usually expected to look after the home and family, even if they work.
Takaichi, a staunch conservative who admires Margaret Thatcher, named a male-dominated cabinet when she took the helm in October, despite pledging to boost female representation.
"The inauguration of Prime Minister Takaichi doesn't appear to have sparked a strong movement within the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) to significantly increase the number of female candidates," Yuki Tsuji, professor of Tokai University and politics expert, told AFP as election campaigning began.
Of the 68 women elected to parliament, 39 came from the LDP -- just over 12 percent of their 315 lawmakers.
Takaichi's views on gender place her on the right of an already conservative LDP, and she opposes revising a 19th-century law requiring married couples to share the same surname.
Yu Uchiyama, political science professor at the University of Tokyo, said that "Takaichi is so famous for her conservative stance that it is unlikely she will devote her energies to policies" like promoting diversity, equality and inclusion.
Japan ranked 118 out of 148 in the World Economic Forum's 2025 Global Gender Gap Report. - AFP
