Japan Press Weekly

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2020 July 22 - 28 TOP3 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Abe gov’t departs from its 30% target for women in leadership roles by 2020

The Abe government intends to give up on pursuing the previously announced goal of increasing women’s share in leadership positions to 30% by the end of 2020. This was revealed in a draft of the fifth government basic plan for gender equality.

The draft was compiled on July 21 by a specialist committee on the basic plan under the Cabinet Office’s Gender Equality Council. The first basic plan was established in 2000 and revised every five years. Regarding the “30% target”, the draft delayed the deadline for reaching the goal until some time in the 2020s.

Prime Minister Abe, since the second administration was inaugurated in 2012, has insisted that as his government’s major task, he will promote women’s participation in all facets of society. However, regarding the percentage of women in executive positions in government ministries and agencies, for example, the Abe government’s target is only 7%. In addition, government spending for the promotion of women empowerment is totally insufficient.

More importantly, although the “30% target” was set in 2003 in line with the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women Toward the Year 2000 which was adopted at a UN conference in 1990, it has been left unachieved for 17 years. Given that the UN now seeks to realize full gender equality in decision-making processes by 2030 as part of the sustainable development goals which were launched by the UN in 2015, Japan as always falls far behind in the promotion of gender equality.

In order to make the basic plan for gender equality effective, the government should take action according to global trends of facilitating gender equality which have been developed since the adoption of the UN Convention eliminating all forms of discrimination against women in 1979.

Past related articles:
> Japan drops to record-low of 121st place in global gender equality ranking [December 18, 2019]
> Workplace gender gap hinders women workers from continuing careers [June 21, 2019]