30% by 2030: Japanese PM Kishida pledges more top executive roles to women

In a bid to address its tarnished image as a gender-biased country, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has vowed to have almost a third of top executive positions in the private sector occupied by women by 2030.

Kishida aims to bring in more diversity in the private sector and public life ahead of the G7 leader’s summit in Hiroshima next month. He said that higher representation of women would boost the country’s economy.

In a meeting with the minister of state for gender equality held this week, Kishida said, “We seek to have the ratio of women among executives at 30 per cent or more by 2030 in companies that are listed on the Tokyo stock exchange’s prime market.”

“Securing diversity through promoting women’s empowerment, and enabling innovation as a result, is crucial to achieving new capitalism and an inclusive society,” he added.

Gender disparity is not uncommon in Japan. The country ranked 116^th out of 146 countries in the Gender Gap Report of 2022 by the World Economic Forum. The country has the lowest ranking among the group of seven nations.

Japan has been notoriously known for its gender inequality. Last year, for example, women represented only 11.4 per cent of top executive positions, according to a cabinet office survey.

Japan’s abysmal record in gender-pay index

The Asian country has a bad track record when it comes to women’s representation.

Among all the G7 nations, Japan has the widest gender-pay gap with women earning around 75 per cent as much as men for full-time work in 2020.

Last month, Kishida said that it is “imperative” for the country to bridge the gender pay gap and reverse the trend of women being forced to take lower-paying contract work after giving birth.

For women, it is particularly difficult to balance work and household duties forcing many to take up unstable and lower-paying “temporary” contract work.

“The situation for women, who are trying to balance household and workplace responsibilities is quite difficult in our country and has been noted as an issue,” chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.

He added, “Based on measures we’ve taken, jobs for women have increased. But it’s also true that many switch to temporary work when they give birth, and measures to tackle this are still just halfway complete,”

Last year, the Japanese government announced new rules that required companies to disclose the gender pay gap under its “Framework Policies.”

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