TOKYO : A bill that could cut 45 seats from Japan’s House of Representatives would disproportionately reduce female lawmaker numbers, a Kyodo News estimate showed Friday, undermining aims to improve women’s representation in politics.
According to the simulation, the cuts from the 176 seats elected by proportional representation would mean 35 percent fewer women would have been voted in via the system in the February lower house election, compared with a 23 percent drop among men.
It also showed that the share of female lawmakers elected to the lower house by the system would fall from 23 percent to 20 percent if reduced to 131 seats.
The bill, submitted to parliament by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner the Japan Innovation Party in late June, would automatically cut 45 of the lower house’s 465 seats if no agreement on reducing the seats can be reached within a year of its implementation.
To estimate the gender breakdown of successful candidates, Kyodo News calculated the distribution of proportional representation list seats from votes in the 11 regional blocs based on preliminary results of the 2025 national census, and then applied the results of the February lower house election.
It showed male lawmakers elected through proportional representation would be reduced by 31, from 136 to 105, while there would be 14 fewer female lawmakers, going from 40 to 26.
The other 289 seats in the lower house are elected in constituency races, of which the LDP led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won 248 in the February election.
The bill’s passage is uncertain, however, as opposition parties, many of whom rely on proportional representation list seats to elect lawmakers, have boycotted parliamentary proceedings while demanding the LDP agree not to debate the bill in the current session expected to end on July 17.
While Takaichi became the first female prime minister in Japan’s male-dominated politics in October, the number of women serving as parliamentary lawmakers remains low, with 68 of the lower chamber’s seats occupied by women, or just under 15 percent.
The government’s basic plan on gender equality aims for women to make up 35 percent of candidates in elections for both the lower house and the House of Councillors by 2030.
