By SAWA OKABAYASHI/ Staff Writer
January 3, 2024 at 07:00 JST
Men far outnumbered women at a Keidanren Summer Forum session for member companies in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, in July. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Leading companies in Japan are lagging far behind their foreign rivals in terms of promoting women to senior positions, according to the first survey on gender equality by Keidanren (Japan Business Federation).
Women accounted for 14.1 percent of board members at 751 member companies of Keidanren, Japan’s most influential business lobby, according to the survey results released on Dec. 22.
According to a Cabinet Office survey, the percentage of female corporate executives in 2022 was 45.2 percent in France, 40.9 percent in Britain, 37.2 percent in Germany, and 31.3 percent in the United States.
Keidanren’s survey covered blue-chip companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime Market in October.
The business lobby conducted the survey because investors are becoming more wary of gender balances on corporate boards.
Some U.S. advisory firms recommend against investing in companies with male-only boards.
According to Keidanren, 39 member companies surveyed had no female directors in October, but the number is now zero.
The Keidanren survey also showed that nearly 90 percent of female executives were appointed from outside the companies.
Only 12 percent of female board members were promoted from within the companies, compared with 61 percent of male executives.
Yoshihisa Masaki, director of Keidanren’s Social Communication Bureau, said Japanese companies have a serious dearth of female employees eligible for executive posts.
“Companies need to focus their efforts on in-house training of female personnel,” Masaki said.
The government has set a goal of increasing the ratio of women on boards of Prime-listed companies to 30 percent by 2030.
A Cabinet Office survey of all companies listed on the Prime Market in 2023 showed a 13.4-percent ratio of female directors, low by international standards.
As of Dec. 25, there were 1,658 Prime-listed companies.
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