The Nation of Japan is
an island country located in South East Asia. It spans approximately 1900 miles
between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean.Japan is made up of five main
islands namely Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Okinawa, which make up
about 97% of the total area of 145,000 square miles. Japan was one of the Axis
nations that fought against the United States and the Allied Nations in World War
2. After Japan was defeated in the war, the US drafted the Japanese
Constitution that provided a legal framework that paved the way for women’s
equality and advancement. Some of the provisions included giving women the
right to vote, giving women greater freedoms,enshrining womens equity to men and also giving women
a higher status within the Japanese society (Soble, Jonathan, 2015).
Despite being a member of the G7 most advanced Nations, Japan has high levels of
gender inequality. Its Gender Inequality Index rank was 19th on the 2019
report, which is relatively low for developed nations. One of the reasons for
this difference between income and gender inequality is because of the deep-rooted
gender norms in the Japanese society. Gender-based inequality is in several areas
of Japanese society, from family to political representation, and
occurs largely as a result of the different gender roles in traditional and
modern Japanese society (Human Development Reports, 2020).
Japan has various strategies to implement Sustainable
Development Goals for women empowerment and gender equality. Firstly, the government
set up a framework for the promotion of gender equality. This framework is a national machinery for the promotion of the formation of a Gender-Equal Society. The central government
established the Council for Gender Equality and the Gender Equality Bureau.
Both were formed at the cabinet level and were headed at the top most level by the Prime Minister. Below is the structure for the promotion of gender-equal society.
Secondly, the government set up The Basic Act for a Gender Equal Society
which was enacted on 23 June, 1999.This act laid out the five pillars or basic
principles that would be used in the formation of a gender-equal society. It
also set out and stipulated the roles of the public administration, which
included both the national and local governments, and citizens. Below are the
Five Pillars in regard to the Formation of a Gender Equal Society.
Building from the lessons learnt from the Basic Act for a Gender Equal
Society, the Japanese government enacted a bold new plan to met its Sustainable
Development Goals for women empowerment and gender equality. The new plan was
labelled The Fourth Basic Plan for Gender Equality. The Fourth Basic Plan for
Gender Equality was formulated in 2015, and set the basic direction of governmental
policies and specific measures to be adopted to foster gender equality in a
comprehensive and planned manner. The main focus of this plan was on labor reforms,
women’s recruitment and empowerment, support to women faced with difficult
situations, and enhanced measures to combat violence against women (Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women examines reports of Japan,
n.d.).Below are some of the targets set out
in the plan.
The government of Japan has a long-term commitment to achieving the goals
of Sustainable Development Goals for women
empowerment and gender equality. This plan has the full backing of the cabinet
of Japan and the full commitment of the Prime Minister of Japan. According
to Goldman Sachs, raising women’s labor participation rate will boost Japans economy
by as much as 13% (Impact of Raising Women's Labor Participation Rate, 2014).
While responding to the stagnancy of the
Japanese economy, Japanese Prime Minister Abe announced an initiative that he coined
‘Womenomics’. This new initiative was a set of policies that was meant to
increase women's participation in the labor force, which in turn would enhance encourage
women's economic advancement (Stewart 2015; Abe 2013). The dimensions of
climate change and poverty in regards to gender is always usually closely
related. It is viewed that climate-related risks potentially exacerbate the
existing poverty and entrenched inequality (Skinner 2011). The poverty rate of
women in Japan is higher than that of men in all age groups. According to the
report of an explorative survey in private enterprises by the National Tax
Agency in 2006, women earned 50 percent less than men per annum (Akaishi 2009,
pp. 3-4).
Japan realizes that it lags behind
among developed nations in gender equality. Fortunately, the government is
serious in bridging this gap and has made actionable steps to address this imbalance.
References:
Soble,
Jonathan, January ,2015. "To Rescue Economy, Japan Turns to
Supermom". The New York Times. Retrieved from
Human Development Reports, United Nations Development
Program, 2017. Retrieved from hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GII
Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women examines reports of
Japan,(n.d.).Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=17052&LangID=E
Abe,
S., 2013, "Unleashing the Power of 'Womenomics," Wall Street Journal,
Eastern edition, New York. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.flinders.edu.au:2067/docview/1436533628/8A7EFED057D74B0BPQ/47?accountid=10910
Stewart,
D., 2015, "Abenomics meets womenomics: Transforming the Japanese
workplace," Foreign Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/northeast-asia/2015-01-29/abenomics-meets-womenomics
Skinner,
E., 2011, Gender and climate change: Overview report, The Institute of
Development Studies.
Akaishi,
C., 2009, "Women and poverty," Japan NGO Report 2009 for Beijing +15,
Japan Women's Watch.
