Why Such Few Women in Leadership Positions in Japan?: Japan

Selected Issues Papers, July 1, 2024

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The share of women in managerial and leadership roles in Japan — in both the public and private sector — are among the lowest across the globe.
This paper empirically examines what drives these large gender gaps in leadership in Japan, using the SVAR model.
Results suggest three key drivers:
- cultural norms where women take up significantly more burden of household and childcare work;
- Japan’s unique employment practices (non-regular employment, long in-person working hours);
- the availability of childcare facilities.
Further progress on workstyle reforms, more flexible labor markets, improving the quality of childcare facilities, and raising paternity leave usage will help close these gaps.

Cultural norms: Women shoulder significantly more household and childcare work, which contributes to lower representation in leadership.
Employment practices: Non-regular employment and long in-person working hours in Japan are important factors driving gender gaps in leadership.
Childcare availability: The availability and quality of childcare facilities affect women’s ability to take managerial and leadership roles.

Continue and deepen workstyle reforms to enable more flexible working arrangements.
Promote more flexible labor markets to reduce barriers for women advancing into leadership.
Improve the quality and availability of childcare facilities.
Raise paternity leave usage to rebalance caregiving responsibilities.