Public broadcaster NHK projected that women had won 73 of 465 lower house seats up for grabs, figures expected to be confirmed in official results later in the day. The broadcaster and other outlets had previously reported that a record number of women were running in the election, accounting for around a quarter of candidates.

Women leaders are still rare in business and politics in Japan, which ranked 118 out of 146 in the 2024 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report.

In Japan, “political parties are male-oriented and not open-minded, so it’s difficult to find female candidates”, Momoko Nojo, head of the organisation No Youth No Japan, said last month ahead of the ruling party leadership vote.

A cabinet office survey conducted in 2021 found that among women electoral candidates in Japan, one in four reported facing sexual harassment during their campaigns, according to Jiji Press.