Japan’s Gender Gap

In the most recent Global Gender Gap Report announced by the World Economic Forum on December 17, 2019, Japan ranked 121st out of 153 countries. Last year in 2018, Japan was at 110th, so this is a drop of 11 places.

The WEF report analyzes various statistical data on the status of women using four categories of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. The gender gap index is based on one being the highest possible score, indicating that gender parity has been achieved, while zero means complete gender disparity.

Among the Group of 7 nations, Germany ranked highest for gender parity at 10th place. It was followed by France (15), Canada (19), Britain (21), United States (53), and Italy (76), meaning that only Japan failed to rank within the top 100.

2019 Gender Equality Ranking

In the political empowerment category, gender parity lags worldwide with women holding 25.2% of parliamentary positions and 21.2% of ministerial positions. In the case of Japan though, this was much lower with only 10.1% and 5.3%, respectively.

Japan saw a slight improvement in the category for economic participation and opportunity, rising from 117th to 115th place; however, it is still too low a standard for it to move out of the bottom group. Japan’s gender wage gap and percentage of women in managerial positions were both below the world average.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)