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Kyodo

There is a Japanese proverb that means making an already strong person or thing even stronger.
It is also the title of a serial drama that Japanese public broadcaster NHK aired in 2024. Tora ni Tsubasa (The Tiger and Her Wings) is based on the true story of Yoshiko Mibuchi, one of Japan’s first women lawyers in pre-war Japan who later became a judge after World War II.
The series, broadcast from April 1 to September 27, coincided with a milestone in the fight against gender inequality, as more than 30 per cent of people passing Japan’s bar examination were women for the first time in its history.
In Japan’s legal professions, as in other sectors, women’s advancement has been slow, even 84 years after Mibuchi and two other women became lawyers.

But in 2024, Japanese women took the two top positions for lawyers and public prosecutors: president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) and prosecutor-general, the head of the Public Prosecutors Office.
A total of 481 women passed the bar examination, accounting for 30.21 per cent, compared with 1,111 men. The total number of examinees was 3,779, a decrease of 149 from 2023.
“It’s a step forward in correcting gender biases in the legal community,” one legal professional said.
According to the Japan Women’s Bar Association, women were prohibited from legal professions until the Attorneys Act was revised in 1936, allowing them to take the higher judicial examination. Mibuchi, Masako Nakata and Ai Kume passed the exam in 1938 and became lawyers in 1940.
When the former “national bar examination” was held for the first time in 1949, only a handful of women were among the roughly 250 successful applicants, according to data from Japan’s Ministry of Justice.

Mibuchi became one of Japan’s first two women judges that same year, following the enforcement of the country’s new constitution two years earlier.
Starting in the 1960s, the number of women passing the bar exam grew to between 20 and 30 annually, with the gender ratio reaching 20 per cent by the 1990s. A new national bar exam was introduced in 2006, and since 2020, women have accounted for over 25 per cent of successful candidates.
Thirty per cent is often seen as the “critical mass”, the point at which a minority can drive change within an organisation. The Ministry of Justice aims to increase the proportion of woman prosecutors to 30 per cent by the end of fiscal 2025, up from 27.2 per cent in March 2023.
“I am truly delighted [with the 2024 bar exam results],” said Reiko Fuchigami, 70, who took up the JFBA presidency in April, becoming the first woman from the three legal professions of public prosecutors, judges and lawyers to hold the position.

Fuchigami passed the bar exam in 1980 when the ratio of successful woman applicants topped 10 per cent for the first time.
While her male peers quickly found jobs during a one-year legal training period, she only managed to land one just before the end of the programme. Law firms that she visited told her that they did not hire women. “It was demoralising,” she recalled.
Among the three legal professions, the ratio of women is highest for prosecutors, followed by judges and lawyers. For public prosecutors – where the ratio approaches 30 per cent – Naomi Unemoto, 62, was appointed prosecutor-general in July 2024.
Although the ratio of women lawyers has recently reached 20 per cent, challenges remain, including income inequality stemming from companies’ reluctance to appoint women as corporate lawyers.
Additionally, there is a need to foster a workplace culture that supports women continuing their careers after childbirth.
“It’s important not to lose opportunities for women to excel,” Fuchigami said.

Gender imbalance in the legal professions creates “differences in sensitivity between men and women about violence against women and real-life experiences such as the time and economic costs of child rearing”, said Toko Teramachi, a 56-year-old lawyer familiar with sex crimes.
In sex crimes and divorce cases, there are factual findings that are sometimes at odds with reality, she said.
Teramachi said the judiciary has a role to play in safeguarding the human rights of minorities excluded from measures determined by majorities.
As more women experience unfair treatment or discrimination, it is important that “a sensibility toward minority people grows” through an increase in their presence in the legal community.


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Sairi Ito as Inotsume Tomoko - a character based on one of Japan’s first female lawyers, Yoshiko Mibuchi - in a still from Tora ni Tsubasa. Photo: NHK

Yoshiko Mibuchi, circa 1938.

Sairi Ito (left) plays Inotsume Tomoko, a character based on Yoshiko Mibuchi, in a still from Tora ni Tsubasa. Photo: NHK

Reiko Fuchigami was elected president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations in 2024. Photo: JFBA

A still from Tora ni Tsubasa. Photo: NHK

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Lifestyle

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Film & TV

Tora ni Tsubasa is based on the true story of Yoshiko Mibuchi, one of Japan’s first women lawyers, who became a judge after World War II


Tora ni Tsubasa is based on the true story of Yoshiko Mibuchi, one of Japan’s first women lawyers, who became a judge after World War II.


Women and gender

Japan

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