Japan to delay 'womenomics' target for female leaders by up to a decade: media

Reuters

Published Jun 30, 2020 02:10AM ET

Updated Jun 30, 2020 02:20AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will delay by up to a decade its target to raise the percentage of women in leadership posts to 30% - part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's campaign to empower women - after failing to hit the deadline this year, domestic media have reported.

Abe's policies to boost the role of women in the economy and politics, dubbed "womenomics", is a pillar of his efforts to cope with Japan's low birth rate and ageing population.

Japan's global ranking on gender parity, however, fell to 121st out of 153 countries in a World Economic Forum report for 2020, the largest gap among advanced countries and down from 101st when Abe took office for a rare second time as prime minister in 2012.

Only 15% of senior and leadership posts are held by women, the report said. Abe's 19-member cabinet has two female ministers and just shy of 10% of lawmakers in parliament's powerful lower house are women.

"Achieving the target during 2020 is impossible, realistically speaking," the Mainichi newspaper quoted a government source as saying, without identifying the source.

The new target date will be postponed to "as early as possible by 2030" in a fresh five-year gender equality plan to be approved by Abe's cabinet this year, the paper said on Friday.

"I think there is a lack of commitment by the government and this is the proof," said Machiko Osawa, a specialist in labour economics at Tokyo Women's University, commenting on the delay.