A record number of women elected: Results of the 2025 election for the House of Councillors
7/27 2025
Author: Yuki Tsuji
The election for the House of Councillors, the upper house of Japan, was held on July 20, 2025. A record 42 women were elected, representing 33.6% of the total number of winners. The term of office for the House of Councillors is six years, and half of the members are elected every three years. Now the total number of female councillors is 73, occupying 29.4% of the total seats.
As shows in the Table 1, women in the opposition parties fared well. In the Constitutional Democratic Party (the largest opposition party), twelve women were elected, which exceeded the number of men who were elected from the same party. In the Sanseito, the newly emerged right-wing populist party which made great strides with its controversial “Japanese First” policy, men and women were elected in equal numbers. In total, the winning rates by gender was higher for women than for men (22.4% of men vs. 27.6% of women). The underperformance of the ruling party, which had a larger number of older male incumbents, contributed to the increase in the number of female winners.
Comparing the House of Representatives (lower house) and the House of Councillors (upper house), the percentage of female members has been consistently higher in the House of Councillors than in the House of Representatives since 1947 (Figure 1). Because the House of Councillors has fewer seats than the House of Representatives, the average number of times to speak in meetings per member is higher in the House of Councillors. In other words, there are more opportunities for female members to speak for women in the upper house than in the lower house, on average.
Meanwhile, the backgrounds and policy positions of members are quite diverse in the House of Councillors, partly because of its election rule composing of different selection methods. For example, while seven women were elected from the Sanseito, they oppose a legislation on the separate surnames for married couples. We should monitor whether the larger percentage of women as well as the diversity of their standpoints in the house will lead to the promotion of policies for a gender equal society.
This election also drew attention to cases of intimidation and violence against candidates, staffers, and street protesters. The Diet should work on safety and violence prevention in election campaigns, including measures against discriminatory discourse and slander on the Internet.
References
Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office (2024). “Women’s Participation in Policy and Decision-Making (Japanese).” [ https://www.gender.go.jp/research/kenkyu/sankakujokyo/2024/pdf/1-1-a-1.pdf]