Voluntary Party Quotas: Japan’s Status Quo and Lessons from Germany

Japan has a long lack of female lawmakers. According to the gender gap report released by the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) in June, Japan’s ranking was the lowest ever, 125th out of 146 countries, especially in the political field, where it ranked 138th. In fact, if we look at the percentage of women in parliament: in the first postwar 1946 general election, the ratio of women in the House of Representatives (HR) was 8.4%, and in the most recent 2021 general election, it stood at 9.7%. There has been virtually no increase for around 70 years. Even in the most recent national election, the 2022 House of Councillors election, the ratio of women elected stood at 25.8%.