Japan's Progress and Challenges
Japan's largest business federation, Keidanren, recently reported that women hold 16.8% of executive positions in its member companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Prime Market. This represents a 2.7 percentage point increase from the previous year.
most female executives were hired from outside the companies. This indicates a lack of internal development and promotion of female talent within these organizations.
Keidanren's survey also found that 1.5% of the companies had no female executives, a decrease from 3.7% the previous year. This suggests progress towards the government's goal of eliminating companies without any female executives by 2025.
The government aims to boost the ratio of female executives in Prime Market companies to 30% by 2030. This ambitious target aligns with the global trend of increasing female representation in leadership positions.
The report also sheds light on the role of outside directors in driving this change. The percentage of women among outside directors increased by 4.3 percentage points to 34.3%, while the percentage of women among inside directors (promoted from within) only increased by 0.9 percentage points to 3.3%.
This disparity highlights the need for companies to focus on developing and promoting internal female talent to achieve sustainable progress in gender diversity within their leadership ranks.
Keidanren's Social Communication Bureau head, Yoshihisa Masaki, emphasizes the importance of increasing the number of female managers as a crucial step towards achieving greater female representation in executive positions.
While Japan has made progress in increasing the number of women in executive roles, there is still a long way to go. Addressing the issue of internal talent development and promotion will be critical in achieving the government's ambitious goals and ensuring true gender equality in leadership positions.