Shinzo Abe Outlines Women in Leadership Vision for Japan: MBA News

Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has mapped out his desire for the proportion of women in leadership positions to reach 30% of his country’s top management roles by 2020.

“Japan must become a place where women shine,” said Abe, a participant at this year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, held in Switzerland.

Shinzo Abe expressed pride in his belief that Japan’s economy has now turned a corner, pointing to an anticipated rise in wages and consumption in 2014, as heralding the possibilities of a new dawn.

However, the prime minister admitted that Japan’s corporate culture is currently too male-dominated and demands greater opportunity for women in leadership, not least because of the country’s falling birth rate and subsequent ageing population.

Referring to corporate culture as ‘a world of pinstripes and button-downs’ Shinzo Abe said, “Japan’s female labor force is the economy’s most underused resource.”

In outlining his plans to develop and foster greater opportunities for women in leadership, Abe touched on his government’s intentions to enact legal reforms and instill a more flexible working environment that will promote women in leadership as well as to encourage foreign workers to contribute towards Japan’s domestic and personal services.

Shinzo Abe also voiced his desire to achieve a better level of understanding between Asian governments to avoid tensions that might present obstacles to the region’s future growth.  

“With Asia becoming the engine driving the world economy, the need to achieve lasting peace and prosperity has never been greater, because the global knock-on effect of any threat to regional stability would be enormous,” he said.