Becoming a Female Japanese Leader: An Empirical Case Study on Historical and Current Debates

Japan experienced a significant change in terms of gender equality in 1985 with the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, as well as ratifying the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. At the time, most developed countries including the US and those in Europe started discussing the same issue of improving gender equality. It was predicted that the paramount moral challenge (of the twenty-first century) will be the struggle for gender equality around the world (Kristof & WuDunn, 2009). The Japanese government also decided to follow the global movement to reduce and eliminate discrimination against women (Yamashita & Yazawa, 2018). However, Japan’s efforts over more than 30 years cannot be considered favorably compared to most other countries’ achievements. The most recent analysis by the World Economic Forum ranked Japan 121st out of the 153 countries overall, and more specifically 115th in the economic field, which is slightly better than its previous position of 117th in 2018, and 144th in political empowerment, which dropped from the previous year’s 125th place (Gender Inequality Report in 2019). The author personally experienced discrimination working as a woman for more than 20 years, but wonders what the Japanese environment has been missing and why the situation has not changed much even though Japan has been challenged to improve its gender inequality.