OBIHIRO, Japan — Standing before an audience of mostly men here on Japan’s northern island, a parliamentary candidate in Sunday’s elections made a pointed appeal.

“I am 33 years old, and I have two children,” Kaori Ishikawa said. “Why shouldn’t such a woman be elected?”

Japan has one of the worst records in the world for female political representation. With women holding just over 9 percent of seats in the lower house of parliament, the nation ranks 165th out of 193 countries in the proportion of women in its national legislature, according to international data. Among the world’s richest countries, it is dead last.

It seemed as if this election could change some of that. It won’t.

Yuriko Koike, the popular governor of Tokyo, founded a new party to great fanfare this year and toyed with running for parliament herself. Many thought she presented the tantalizing possibility of becoming the first female prime minister in Japan.