Public broadcaster NHK projected that women had won 73 of 465 lower house seats up for grabs, figures expected to be confirmed in official results later in the day.

In Japan’s 2021 general election some 45 women were elected to the lower house.

The broadcaster and other outlets had previously reported that a record number of women were running in the election, accounting for around a quarter of candidates.

Women leaders are still rare in business and politics in Japan, which ranked 118 out of 146 in the 2024 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report.

Prime minister Shigeru Ishiba’s 20-strong cabinet includes just two women.

In Japan, “political parties are male-oriented and not open-minded, so it’s difficult to find female candidates”, Momoko Nojo, head of the organisation No Youth No Japan, said last month ahead of the ruling party leadership vote.

“Many women also take on care work at home, which makes it difficult for them to be a politician,” added Nojo, who also runs a project to encourage and support women and minorities to enter politics.

A cabinet office survey conducted in 2021 found that among women electoral candidates in Japan, one in four reported facing sexual harassment during their campaigns, according to Jiji Press.

Ishiba’s ruling coalition had a disastrous showing in the election on Sunday and is projected to lose its parliamentary majority.

The 67-year-old premier called a vote days after taking office on October 1, but voters angry at a slush fund scandal punished his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).