Story perspectives

Study Reveals Stagnant Gender Equality in Japanese Politics

3/8/2026

Summary

Story summary

A study released on International Women’s Day shows gender equality in Japanese politics remains inadequate across 47 prefectures, with eight prefectures including Kanagawa posting declines.
Tokyo ranks highest with a 0.386 score, followed by Yamagata and Osaka at 0.271.
In the House of Representatives election, women represented 14.6% of candidates, down 1.1 points from the last election.
In 16 prefectures, improvements were minimal, with changes of 0.010 or less.

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Story summary

A study released on International Women’s Day shows gender equality in Japanese politics remains inadequate across 47 prefectures, with eight prefectures including Kanagawa posting declines.
Tokyo ranks highest with a 0.386 score, followed by Yamagata and Osaka at 0.271.
In the House of Representatives election, women represented 14.6% of candidates, down 1.1 points from the last election.
In 16 prefectures, improvements were minimal, with changes of 0.010 or less.