Womenomics, ‘Equality’ and Abe’s Neo-liberal Strategy to Make Japanese Women Shine

By international measurements, Japan fares poorly on gender equality. With the second largest gender pay gap and the worst record for women’s political representation among OECD countries, Japanese women have limited access to positions of power and influence. The government has begun to address these inequalities with a raft of policies that attempt to bridge these chronic gender gaps, with the recent policies of the Abe administration being referred to as ‘womenomics’. Heralded by many as an important step in the right direction, womenomics has also been criticised as a misguided co-optation of feminism. This Survey discusses the implications of the ‘long-working-hours’ culture on gender equality policies and the implementation of womenomics within a climate of neo-liberal management practices justified through chronic economic stagnation. Far from the empowering outcomes it rhetorically espouses, this evaluation suggests that womenomics is further exacerbating the bipolarisation of Japanese women into two groups: a small elite minority capable of assimilating to masculinised working patterns versus the vast majority of women ghettoized into insecure underpaid ‘non-regular’ work that denies access to crucial benefits.