Around 60 percent of prefectural assemblywomen in Japan who responded to a Kyodo News survey said they have had unpleasant experiences due to sexual harassment by such people as male colleagues and voters, the poll showed Sunday.

Among 147 respondents to the survey conducted in February and March covering 261 assemblywomen nationwide as of Feb. 1, 87 respondents or 59.2 percent said they had unpleasant experiences in their political activities due to “words and deeds stemming from misogyny,” while the other 60, or 40.8 percent, said they had had no such experiences.

Asked whose action of misogyny stirred their negative experiences in a multiple-choice question, 60 of the 87 assemblywomen cited male lawmakers in the same assembly, 46 pointed to voters, 16 to “other lawmakers” including Diet members and 14 to local government officials.

Specifically, the survey showed an assemblyman heckled a female member in the same assembly, telling her to “ask questions after giving birth to a child.” Some respondents said that at hotels during study tours, male colleagues intruded into their room and forcibly kissed them.

The survey also showed some respondents had their breasts and bottoms touched by voters at parties and were forced to pour drinks for them in exchange for their votes.

Asked about what measures are needed to prevent such harassment, many said they have to “keep a resolute attitude,” or “increase the number of assemblywomen to have a greater voice.”

Some called for adding provisions to prevent harassment to rules of assemblies and conducting seminars for assembly members to abolish such a practice.

Sexism targeted at female politicians was highlighted in June 2014 after Ayaka Shiomura, a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member, was heckled by men when she was asking questions about maternity support measures during the plenary session.

One of them, Akihiro Suzuki, later came forward to admit to telling her, “You should get married first,” and offered an apology.

This year marks 70 years since Japanese women exercised suffrage, but only 9.8 percent of the prefectural assembly seats in the country were held by women as of the end of 2015, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.

Survey finds 60% of assemblywomen have been sexually harassed by male colleagues, voters | The Japan Times