Less than 8% of top bosses in Japan companies are women
Tokyo, Aug 26 (efe-epa).- Women occupy less than 8 percent of senior positions in Japanese companies, according to a recent survey published by public broadcaster NHK on Wednesday, despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s vows to promote females executives in the workforce.
A dismal 0.1 percentage point increase in women holding top executive positions as compared to the last year comes even though the country enacted Equal Employment Opportunity some 34 years ago.
The survey has found only 7.8 percent of senior positions in Japanese companies held by women.
The survey was conducted between July 16 and July 31 by credit research firm Teikoku Databank involving 11,732 Japanese companies.
The average of 7.8 percent is the highest figure recorded until now in these surveys, which have been carried out since 2013.
However, it is far from the target of the government of Prime Minister Abe who has promoted gender diversity in the workforce as a national growth strategy and set the goal of raising women’s share of leadership roles in the country to 10 percent by the end of 2020.
Major companies in the country have also set out an ambitious plan to increase the number of female executives at blue chips to 30 percent by the end of 2030.
Only 7.5 percent of the companies surveyed have confirmed that they have achieved the 10 percent target, according to the Teikoku Databank’s report dated Aug. 17.
A sector-wise breakdown shows nursery schools ranked first in the business with significant women leadership, accounting for nearly 43 percent of all company presidents.
This is followed by cosmetic sales at 35 percent, beauty salons at 34, elderly welfare services at 32, and educational providers at nearly 30.5.
The figures show that female presidents are most active in family-related businesses, such as child and nursing care, as well as in sectors with a strong female customer base like beauty care, according to the survey.
Asked about what trends they anticipate in this regard, 21.7 percent of the firms responded that they expect that percentage to increase, while 60 percent said that they do not anticipate any changes.
Japan is one of the lowest-ranked developed countries in terms of women’s participation in politics, according to the data of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and United Nations Women.
According to the latest report of the two agencies, Spain tops the list 66.7 percent of women in ministerial positions while Japan is ranked 113, between Singapore and Morocco, with 15.8 percent.
Rwanda is ranked first in terms of female participation in the legislature, with 61.3 percent of posts in the lower house occupied by women, while Japan is ranked 165, between Samoa and Qatar, with 9.9 percent. EFE-EPA
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