Can Japan get extra feminine enterprise leaders? | EUROtoday

In October Japan acquired its first feminine prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. Her rise has been hailed as a ground-breaking second for Japanese girls, however some worry that her conservative politics will not change the nation’s gender inequality state of affairs.

There’s one factor that each her proponents and detractors agree on – Japan wants extra girls in management positions in each enterprise and authorities.

The nation has remarkably low gender equality relative to its excessive degree of financial improvement. This yr, it ranked 118th out of 148 nations on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index.

That makes it the worst performing among the many 38 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) group of free market democracies.

The Japanese authorities did set a goal of getting 30% of management roles throughout all sectors of society held by girls by 2020, however on the finish of that yr the timeframe was quietly pushed again by a decade. Currently the extent for companies is 11.1%.

But change is slowly underway.

“Japan actually has done a really good job increasing female labour market participation,” says Yumiko Murakami, co-founder of MPower Partners, Japan’s first female-led enterprise capital (VC) firm. VC companies put money into start-up corporations.

The proportion of ladies aged 15-64 working has steadily elevated over the previous 15 years, surpassing the OECD common within the early 2010s, and going above 77% this yr. That’s increased than the 70% recorded within the US.

Japan’s ageing inhabitants and labour shortages have made extra girls discovering paid work an financial necessity for the nation.

Ms Murakami additionally factors to key coverage interventions as an essential issue. Such as the federal government transferring to cut back nursery ready lists, in order that younger moms can return to the workforce extra shortly.

There is, nevertheless, a catch – girls in Japan earn on common solely 70 to 80% of their male counterparts’ wages, in line with a 2024 authorities survey.

That’s one thing Ms Murakami and her co-founders are aiming to alter. Their agency’s WPower fund focuses solely on supporting feminine founders and women-empowerment companies.

“There are really, really interesting and good female founders or minority founders,” says Ms Murakami. “But they may not get the same level of access to capital in the same way as male founders do, which creates opportunities for people like us [as investors].”

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government put up capital for half the fund, with the rest coming from non-public sector corporations.

Ms Murakami says it was encouraging how a lot curiosity they acquired. But she warns that the “clubby [male] environment” in Japan’s wider VC group makes it robust for feminine entrepreneurs making an attempt to get funding, and even entry to data.

“The venture capital industry is very closed in a way. If you’re in, if you’re an insider, then it’s great because you are connected with everybody and the information travels really quickly.

“But, in case you are not, then it is actually onerous – you simply do not get lots of data. The sheer variety of feminine founders is simply tiny.

“And therefore, because there’s no critical mass, they are really not part of the core of this small start-up village. And therefore, in my opinion we need to create critical mass.”

The gender imbalance – feminine entrepreneurs and male cheque-writers – has additionally led to sexual harassment instances. More than half of feminine entrepreneurs mentioned they’d skilled sexual harassment previously yr, in line with a 2024 survey.

The subject has gained rising media consideration in Japan, with a number of victims reporting sexual assault or being pressured to trade sexual favours for funding. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry introduced a authorities survey in August 2025 to evaluate the scope of the issue.

Startup Lady is a assist organisation focussed on feminine firm founders – and security is a key concern. Moeko Suzuki co-founded the organisation along with her enterprise companions a decade in the past, after they realised there was a niche in assist in Japan for aspiring or early-stage feminine entrepreneurs of all nationalities.

“We started to think that we should create some safe space for women, and also a place for female entrepreneurs to get together, talk about business, ease their mind, and also get the mindset,” Ms Suzuki says. “We wanted to create somewhere very, very safe for female entrepreneurs in Japan, even if they’re not Japanese.”

This yr, they’re collaborating with an area authorities in Tokyo to run a collection of lectures and workshops on matters from fundraising to how one can shut a deal, with one-to-one mentoring periods and alternatives for networking.

So far, nevertheless, the occasions have attracted extra non-Japanese feminine entrepreneurs than Japanese. Ms Suzuki says there’s nonetheless a scarcity of feminine function fashions in Japan to encourage youthful generations.

Gender stereotypes persist in schooling. The nation has one of many lowest percentages of feminine college students in stem topics (sciences, expertise, engineering and arithmetic) in comparison with different OECD nations.

At Tokyo University, thought-about considered one of Japan’s most prestigious instructional establishments, solely 20% of undergraduates are girls, and even fewer are researchers.

To deal with this, the college launched an initiative referred to as UTokyo Gender Equity #WeChange in 2022. The goal is to extend the ratio of feminine college members from 16% in 2022 to 25% by the top of the 2027 educational yr.

To assist obtain this it’s offering subsidies to departments that rent feminine college members, in some instances subsidising the prices of the brand new hires for as much as three years or 5 years. So far, the ratio has risen to nearly 18%.

Prof Kaori Hayashi, Tokyo University’s government vice chairman who’s spearheading the initiative, says progress has been gradual however vital.

The drawback, she cautions, is that they’re nonetheless going through a restricted candidate pool. Girls are typically actively discouraged from pursuing stem or getting into Tokyo University.

To counteract this early-stage gender bias, the college runs outreach applications, sending feminine college students again to their excessive colleges to speak about life on campus and function function fashions.

Undoubtedly, probably the most seen function mannequin for ladies in Japan, nevertheless, is the newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who heads Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Some have applauded her rise because the shattering of the glass ceiling, in a rustic that has extraordinarily low feminine political empowerment in comparison with its OECD counterparts.

Others, nevertheless, bemoan her conservative viewpoints, akin to her opposition to proposed laws that will permit girls to maintain separate surnames after marriage. They fear little will change.

“I understand that some people are encouraged by the idea that a woman can become prime minister, but I don’t think it will lead to the realisation of gender equality policies,” says youth activist Momoko Nojo.

But in a rustic making an attempt to open the doorways to extra feminine leaders throughout all sectors, it is unattainable to disregard the importance of Sanae Takaichi’s election. Whether some take into account her a job mannequin or not, a precedent has been set that girls in Japan can turn into leaders on the very prime.