5 GENDER EQUALITY

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Status in Japan

• The share of women in national parliament in Japan was 8.10% in 2014, the lowest among OECD countries. (OECD average: 27.77%.)
  Source: Sustainable Development Goals: Are the rich countries ready? Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2015, page 62.
• Japan's gender pay gap is 26.6%, larger than the OECD average of 15.46%.
  Source: Sustainable Development Goals: Are the rich countries ready? Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2015, page 63.
• Japan ranks 101 among 145 countries according to the Global Gender Gap Index 2015 which measured the relative gaps between women and men in health, education, economy and politics.
  Source: Rankings Global Gap Index 2015, World Economic Forum, 2015.
• Women hold only 2.1% of seats on boards of directors in Japan compared with 36% in Norway, about 30% in France and Finland, and about 20% in Canada and the United States.
  Source: Japan Policy Brief, OECD, April 2015.
• In 2011, Women in Japan spent an average 3 hours and 35 minutes per week on household chores compared to men, who spent 42 minutes.
  Source: 2011 Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities, Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2011.

Updates on Government Policies in Japan

• In August 2015, the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace was enacted.

Note:

1. Where possible, JFS referred to Japanese official government sources for statistics cited. In cases where the official source did not include an English translation, in some cases we added statistics from international sources.
2. In some cases, we list "More info" for anyone wishing to do further research.

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Japanese groups working to achieve the SDGs goals