A record 237 women won seats in 41 prefectural assemblies as part of nationwide unified local elections on April 7, an increase from 207 compared with four years ago.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party won more than half of the 2,277 seats. Only 55 candidates are female. End up 41 candidates won the race. Last year, "gender equality in the political field" was activated. All parties meant to prepare equal numbers of female candidates as big as male candidates. Look at the main parties, only the Japanese Communist Party had 111 females which is 46% of their all candidates.
While women from a range of backgrounds won seats in the latest elections, more than 150 female candidates were unsuccessful in their bids. Female winners accounted for 10.4 percent of the total.
This number wouldn't be changed if LDP party keep their male candidates on the next assemblies again. Japan is known for the two-big party system. Main Opposition Party is Constitutional Democratic Party which produced 29 female members. CDP's power is quite small, You can't expect a big change. Actually, we are a multi-party system. The second biggest ruling party, New Komeito which often relate to Soka Gakkai. This party has set 477 female candidates on the assemblies. As a result, only 14 candidates were elected.
There is a big problem behind such a small number of 237 women out of 2,277 candidates.
First of all, LDP is male dominant party. Only 1 woman join Abe's ministry. Here is an ungrateful number by CNN.
Japan came 165th out of 193 countries listed in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) study. As of January 1, only 47 of Japan's 463 lower house lawmakers were women -- compared to a 24% global average and 19.6% average in Asia.
Secondly, I assume, most Japanese people are lack of awareness about male dominant society.
Women are treated unequally. Male get a high salary but female less. Maternity leave is not guaranteed.
Asahi
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201904080040.html
JapanTimes
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/08/national/politics-diplomacy/opposition-fractured-ldp-bags-half-prefectural-seats-first-leg-polls/#.XKwTFhMzbOR
CNN
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/07/asia/japan-female-politicians-intl/index.html
Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field
http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail_main?re=02&vm=04&id=3139
