Japan Press Weekly

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2024 June 26 - July 2 [POLITICS]

Pressed by JCP lawmaker, gov’t will develop tool to analyze gender wage gap

In response to a proposal by Japanese Communist Party Dietmember Miyamoto Toru, the government has decided to develop an “analysis tool” that will allow each company to self-analyze the wage differential between male and female employees.

The Kishida government at its Cabinet meeting on June 21 approved the basic policy on economic and fiscal management (known as the “big-boned policy”) for 2024 and included in the policy the development of a “difference analysis tool” that allows each company to self-assess the gender wage gap at that company.

JCP Miyamoto at a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee on October 30, 2023, pointed out that Japan is a country noted for its large wage gap between men and women. He presented a case study in which Mercari Inc., Japan’s major flea market app company, conducted a pay analysis and found an unexplained gender gap of 7%, so it adjusted its wages and narrowed the gap to 2.5%.

At the meeting, Miyamoto noted that Switzerland and Germany provide calculation tools with which companies can self-diagnose whether there is a verifiable wage gap for the same length of service and job. He proposed that Japan also provide similar calculation tools.