A study released by the World Bank on Monday (March 4) ahead of International Women's Day (March 8) has not been pretty for Japan - a country that has long acknowledged significant gender disparities when it comes to legal rights and opportunities for men and women.
Notably, the World Bank's annual Women, Business and the Law 2024 report even ranked Japan below the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Nepal and Lesotho in terms of gender equality.
A woman walks past a mural in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: AFP
The multidimensional report on gender equality in countries is ranked based on eight indicators, including pay, marriage, entrepreneurial opportunity and working conditions, with two new areas added in 2024 – childcare and safety from violence.
While Japan has achieved good results in access to childcare services, the World Bank has warned the country in several other areas, including a lack of progress in improving long-standing problems of unequal opportunities and pay between men and women.
The study concluded that, when all factors are taken into account, Japanese women enjoy only 72.5 percent of the legal rights and protections that Japanese men enjoy, compared to the OECD average of 84.9 percent.
The report also notes that female entrepreneurs do not enjoy the same opportunities as their male counterparts, and calls on Japan to change its legal framework to address cases of domestic violence and sexual harassment.
The Japanese government has repeatedly pledged to promote women on par with men in all areas of society. For example, in 2014, then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that the Japanese government intended to help women “shine” in both the workplace and society, and that the benefits of its women’s policies would be evident by 2020.
Mr Abe's vision is to increase the number of women in management positions from 9.2% in 2014 to 15% by 2020, and women in senior roles in government agencies to increase from 3.5% in 2015 to 7%.
However, none of these goals were met. Nor were the goals of getting women to take on greater roles in neighborhood community organizations, along with plans to get more women back in the office after having children and for men to help more with household chores.
Nowadays, young fathers in Japan are more involved in raising their children. Photo: Shutterstock
Japan's low gender equality cannot be blamed entirely on the country's political leaders, says lecturer Sumie Kawakami at Yamanashi Gakuin University.
“The Japanese system is biased against women, but there are also problems in our society that we need to fix,” she said. “For example, in the Japanese workplace, many women do not want to be promoted because it requires longer hours and greater responsibility.”
When it comes to balancing a career and being a good mother, Japanese women tend to lean toward motherhood, Kawakami says, perhaps because they’re influenced by family members who tell them to spend more time doing housework, or because they’re fed up with neighbors gossiping about how little they’re at home.
“Women still have to follow the norms of this society, even if it goes against what they really want,” Kawakami concluded.
However, Kawakami is optimistic that the new generation of young people see things differently. "I really think things are changing. I see young fathers being more involved in family life and helping out with child-rearing than they used to be," she said.
Ms Kawakami agrees that it may take a few years for the new generation of young men to take up senior positions in companies and organizations. This means that the current generation of young Japanese women may not yet realize their dreams of gender equality in their careers, but their daughters may be on par with Japanese men.
Hoai Phuong (according to SCMP)
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