An interview with Kathy Matsui

A: Two decades on from the launch of our 1999 report, Womenomics: Buy the Female Economy, we have seen female labor participation in Japan surge by more than 70%, to exceed US and European levels. But while Japan has made substantial progress in boosting the quantity of working women, with a record-high female labor participation rate, it still has a long way to go when it comes to quality of opportunity, since there is still a dearth of female leaders in the country. For instance, the ratio of female managers in Japan stands at just 15%—less than half that of the US and Europe—and the percentage of female board directors is less than 10%, which also pales in comparison to most other developed nations.

Reflecting the under-representation of women in senior roles, and the fact that women account for the vast majority (70%) of part-time workers, Japan also suffers from the largest gender pay gap (25%) in the G7.