It was a thrilling moment. The Japanese Prime Minister vowed to raise to 30% the number of female managers at private companies--and to do so in a mere seven years. That PM was Junichiro Koizumi, and the promise was made in 2003. Ten years later, Shinzo Abe made the exact same promise with the same seven-year deadline. Now, another ten years have passed, and Fumio Kishida has vowed that 30% of corporate executives will be women, and once again in seven years.

             This is yet another case of Prime Ministers announcing lofty goals without creating any effective measures to turn their pronouncements into reality. There has been some progress on women having more managerial roles, but the pace of progress has been glacial. If the government wants to have more women managers, get equal wages, etc., the first step is just to enforce the law, which strictly outlaws gender discrimination on wages and promotion. But neither the Labor Ministry, nor any other government agency, is mandated to investigate and penalize violations. It's unlikely that Kishida will do so.

             For details, see https://richardkatz.substack.com/p/mr-kishida-to-get-30-female-company

Richard Katz

>

>

Correction: Koizumi's target date for reaching 30% female managers was 2020, not 2010.

Richard Katz