HAPPY WOMAN launches 50:50 Project amid gender inequality in Japan

Despite the former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, declaring in 2013 to improve gender equality and to promote women’s empowerment in Japan, it’s hard to say the country’s attempt to create ‘a society in which all women shine’ has been successful in the past seven years. According to the World Economic Forum’s annual report on gender equality (Global Gender Gap Report 2020), Japan marked a record-low 121st place among 153 countries (Japan ranked 110th out of 149 countries in the previous report). There was a large gender gap, particularly in women’s economic and political participation.

Japan enforced the ‘Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace‘ in 2016, which aims to increase the ratio of women workers among the workers in managerial positions up to 30% by 2030. However, the rate was 11.2% as of 2018, barely reaching a third of its desired number. The act also aims to raise the total fertility rate to 1.8 by 2025 and continued employment rate after her first child’s birth up to 70% by the same year. Unfortunately, the actual fertility rate hit another record low of 1.36 in 2019, and the continued employment rate was 53.1% in that same year. Setting idealistic goals isn’t enough to change reality.

When the Japanese Government declared a state of emergency in April due to COVID-19, many workers were forced to change their work styles. A lot of workers, both male and female, switched to remote work during the quarantine. This unexpected situation also revealed the issues we must face to realize gender equality. What became clear from the irregular change was the uneven involvement in household chores by men and women in Japan. It’s surprising but true that Japanese male students didn’t take home economic classes until 1993 in junior high schools and 1994 in high schools. Doing housework has long been regarded as a women’s role in Japan.

Needless to say, the length of time per day is even for all genders. Thus, we cannot overlook the imbalance of housework involvement if we genuinely want to realize a gender-equal society. We already know this bias affects Japan’s birthrate (which is decreasing year by year) and gender difference in the country’s length of continuous employment. Because the nation is facing an aging and declining population crisis, the society needs to promote women’s empowerment to secure workforce and economic development.

HAPPY WOMAN Committee, an organization based in Tokyo, promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment in Japan. HAPPY WOMAN will launch a new project called ‘50:50 Project‘ in which the committee aims to balance the gender ratio, change people’s awareness of gender inequality, and break down unconscious bias. Next year on International Women’s Day, the project will release an online movie based on the theme ’50:50’ to realize a gender-equal society.

Japanese society needs women’s participation and advancement as a workforce and for economic development. And many women desire to work for self-fulfillment if circumstances allow. We need specific measures to accelerate women’s empowerment and to eliminate gender inequality in Japan. To discuss this matter, each one of us needs to reexamine our unconscious bias on the roles we play at workplaces and in our personal lives. The transformation benefits not only women, but also men and the society as a whole.