Study finds gender gap in Japanese politics persists
Tokyo (ANTARA) — Gender equality in politics remains far from achieved across Japan’s 47 prefectures, according to a study conducted by a group of experts on Sunday as they released local gender-gap index scores on International Women’s Day.
Although nearly 80 years have passed since Japanese women first gained the right to vote, the political index declined in eight prefectures, including Kanagawa near Tokyo, compared with figures from 2024, while many other prefectures also saw only small changes.
With a score of 1 representing full equality, Tokyo recorded 0.386, ranking first for the fifth consecutive year, aided by the high share of women in metropolitan and other local assemblies.
Prefectures Yamagata and Osaka were tied in second place, both on 0.271, followed by Chiba and Kanagawa on 0.258 and 0.255 respectively.
The February election for Japan’s House of Representatives did little to improve gender equality in politics, with women accounting for only 14.6% of all elected candidates, down 1.1 percentage points from the previous general election.
In 16 prefectures, the margin of improvement was 0.010 or less than the 2024 index, reflecting the results of the previous nationwide/local elections.
The index also covers three other domains, with Tottori leading in public policy at 0.514, supported by a strong gender balance in managerial positions in local government; Tokushima topping education at 0.730; and Kochi ranking highest in the economy at 0.455.
The researchers’ group ‘Turning Local Gender Equality into Action!’ has calculated the prefectural index using 30 indicators, including government statistics, since 2022. Kyodo News acts as the group’s secretariat.
‘We need persistent efforts, because gender equality does not always advance and can sometimes regress,’ said Mari Miura, a professor at Sophia University’s Faculty of Law who has led the group.
Caitlin Schmid, a British expert on gender gaps, said that national statistics alone cannot reveal substantial regional variations in gender gap outcomes in economic, social and political results for women and men.
She called the regional gender-gap index for Japan a ‘highly valuable initiative.’
Britain ranks fourth in the Global Gender Gap Index 2025 released by the World Economic Forum, the highest among G7 industrialised nations. Japan ranks 118th, the lowest among G7 members.
Schmid, a researcher at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, said that Japan, like Britain, is experiencing rising income and regional inequality.
‘Measuring outcomes at the local level allows inequality to be identified more precisely over time, enabling targeted support and investment, and facilitating inter-prefecture learning,’ she said.
Similar efforts to visualise gender inequality at the local level have also been conducted in the UK, with the institute recently releasing a British version of the gender-gap index involving local government.
Source: Kyodo-OANA