Women make up less than 18% of candidates in Japan general election

Women account for 17.7 percent of the candidates running in Japan's Oct. 31 general election, a figure largely unchanged from the previous election despite government efforts to boost female representation in politics.Of the 1,051 candidates contesting the 465 seats in the House of Representatives, the powerful lower chamber of parliament, only 186 are women, down 23 from the previous election in 2017.By political party, the Japanese Communist Party has the largest share of women among its 130 candidates at 35.4 percent. Meanwhile, women only make up 33, or 9.8 percent, of the ruling Libera…READ FULL ARTICLE