Female and independent candidates made major advances amid record-low voter turnout this weekend in mayoral and municipal assembly elections around the nation, with almost all of the victors having been declared by Monday.
The winners of all 10,246 seats in 387 city assemblies had been announced by early Monday, including a record-high 1,236 women. This tops the 1,084 women who won seats in the previous elections four years ago.
The Liberal Democratic Party, the coalition leader, ended up with a record-low number of city assembly members at 814, after originally putting up only 870 candidates, fewer than the 881 LDP assembly members elected in 1999, the previous record low.