Record 42 Women Elected in Japan’s Upper House Election; 29% of Upper House Lawmakers are Women

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:05 JST, July 22, 2025

A record 42 women were elected in Sunday’s House of Councillors election, beating the previous record of 35 in the 2022 upper house election.

Of the 125 candidates elected, 33.6% were women, an increase of 5.6 percentage points compared to the 28% in the 2022 election. A record 73 female lawmakers now make up the upper house, or 29.4%, including the seats that were not up for grabs this election.

By party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan had the most with 12, followed by the Liberal Democratic Party and Sanseito with seven each, the Democratic Party for the People with five, the Japan Innovation Party with three, and the Japanese Communist Party and Reiwa Shinsengumi with two each. There were also four unaffiliated female candidates who won in Sunday’s election.

A total of 152 women ran in the election: 102 in the constituency segment and 50 in the proportional representation segment.