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Will Japan PM Suga’s new gender equality plan make any difference after Abe’s ‘womenomics’ policy falls short?
- The former prime minister’s equality policy set ambitious targets for women in 2020. But on almost every one, the country is falling short
- A new gender equality plan is on its way from his successor Yoshihide Suga, though observers expect little in the way of real progress
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When former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outlined in 2014 his ambitious plan to make Japanese women “shine” in the workplace and broader society by the end of the decade, he set a series of firm targets to cement his commitment towards that goal.
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But the 2020 deadline Abe insisted on for his so-called “womenomics” policy has now come and nearly gone, with the country still falling short on almost all of the six key metrics that were cited as evidence of progress on gender equality. In some cases, woefully short.
Abe is no longer prime minister – he stepped down in September over health concerns and was replaced by his chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga – but his Liberal Democratic Party is still in power. His much-championed push to improve gender equality in the country shambles on too, though its critics charge that it was deeply flawed from the outset.
In early November, when Suga was briefed by Japan’s Council for Gender Equality on six years of progress towards that goal, he was told that most of the key targets for 2020 should now be pushed back by a decade.
His response, issued in a statement after receiving the report, was: “We need to carry out introspection on the fact that the plan has not made sufficient progress and undertake a new effort.”
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