News One-third of candidates in general election female

[thomas]

The Guardian on the upcoming election: a record of 181 female candidates will be vying for 125 seats, up 77 from the previous upper house election in 2019. This trend has given hope to women campaigning to break the male stranglehold on Japanese politics.

The increase is an apparent attempt by Japan's political parties to honour a commitment to select similar numbers of male and female candidates, although only a tiny number took part in recent elections for the more powerful upper house. The optimism could be short-lived however. Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) – which is expected to win more than half the seats on Sunday – has increased the proportion of female candidates since the last upper house elections three years ago, but only to 23.2%. The LDP candidates include Arfiya Eri, a former UN official of Uyghur heritage who told a recent live stream event: "The more visible different lifestyles are to us, the more capable we are of imagining other people's lives and other people's needs."

From ‘get married’ to getting elected – women a record one-third of candidates in Japan poll

Notoriously sexist, Japanese politics is being shaken up as parties increase female representation at upper house elections

www.theguardian.com

I cannot fathom why Mrs Eri is running for the LDP, but she'll undoubtedly bring some diversity into Japanese politics:

Uyghur-heritage candidate urges Japan to 'embrace diversity'

The LDP's Arfiya Eri is a young, female, multilingual former U.N. official. She's also the first person of Uyghur origin to run as a major party candidate in Japan.

www.japantimes.co.jp