Minister’s Message on International Women’s Day 2017

March 8, 2017

KATO Katsunobu
Minister in Charge of Women’s Empowerment
Minister of State for Gender Equality

The 8th of March is International Womenʼs Day, recognized by the United Nations in 1975. This celebration was established as an opportunity to reaffirm the extent to which women have broadened their potential by playing larger roles in peace, security, and development, and enhancing their standing in organizations and communities, while at the same time discussing further progress for the future.

Creating a society where all women can fully express their individuality and exercise their abilities according to their own desires is a priority for the Abe administration, which has implemented various initiatives to encourage womenʼs active participation in a wide range of fields.

Above all, the Act on Promotion of Womenʼs Participation and Advancement in the Workplace, which is the main engine driving empowerment of women in Japan, came into full force last year. The act makes it mandatory for large enterprises and national and local government organizations to develop and publish action plans, and periodically issue information useful to women in making career choices. This ground-breaking scheme has gained broad understanding in business and labor union circles, and action plans have already been drawn up and published by all national and local government organizations and 99.9% of large enterprises.

Empowerment of women was also discussed in the leadersʼ summit and all related ministerial meetings as part of the G7 Ise- Shima Summit held in May last year, hosted by Japan as the first summit following formulation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Through such efforts, Japan has been a leader in creating international opportunities to promote the empowerment of women.

Such initiatives are steadily bringing results. In the four years since the Abe administration took office, the number of female workers in Japan has risen by around 1.5 million, and the number of women on the boards of listed companies has more than doubled. Moreover, the proportion of women continuing to work after the birth of their first child, which previously sat at around 40%, has jumped to 53%. The career aspirations of young women are also changing, with more new female recruits setting their sights on senior management positions.

Work-style reform is the biggest and most pressing issue for further advancing such initiatives. The Council for the Realization of Work Style Reform, chaired by the prime minister, is adopting the perspective of working people in its discussion of topics including changes to the practice of long working hours and realizing equal pay for equal work. It is important to offer broader options so that women who wish to work can do so in a range of styles enabling them to balance work with child-raising and other household responsibilities. The council will compile a concrete action plan at the end of this month and accelerate the pace of reforms.

The groundswell of womenʼs empowerment is growing. We will continue our tireless efforts to create greater and broader opportunities.