April 1, 2021

Japan ranks 120th among 156 countries in gender equality, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021 released on March 31 by the World Economic Forum. Japan raised its ranking from the previous 121st, but it still ranks the lowest among industrialized nations as Japanese women's participation in political office has been remarkably lagging.

Asked by reporters for comments on this year's ranking, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira in the Diet building on the same day said, "Japan's ranking is seriously low. We should make more efforts to increase the proportion of women in the field of politics."

Koike continued to say, "Japan has moved up one place but moved down in the category of women’s participation in politics. The percentage of women Lower House lawmakers and of women Cabinet ministers is especially low. The government as well as each political party should be held responsible for the low proportion of women lawmakers."

He added, "The government should seriously work to increase the percentage of women Cabinet ministers and decision-makers. Political parties should also make efforts to work to boost the number of women legislators."

Past related articles:
> JCP Koike: Mature democracy ensures equal representation of male and female Dietmembers [March 5, 2021]
> Women's rights NGOs in Japan call for lifting Japanese women's rights to international levels [November 10, 2020]
> Abe gov’t departs from its 30% target for women in leadership roles by 2020 [July 27, 2020]
> Japan drops to record-low of 121st place in global gender equality ranking [December 18, 2019]