Tsuyoshi Akasaka

Academic Writing for Multilingual Students

Introduction
Gender inequality is a serious issue that the world has been trying to solve. For
instance, Japan is often regarded as a country which has a big gender gap in several areas.
According to The Japan Times (2014), Japan is assessed as the 104th country out of the 142
assessed countries in the study done by the World Economic Forum, which reports how much
gender equality is achieved in a country. This position is quite low compared to other developed
countries. This study shows that the Japans gender inequality has been improved, but a lot of
areas for satisfying gender equality need to be improved. This report indicates the status of
women in Japan by examining three factors: educational attainment, political and economic
participation, and working condition. Overall, educational attainment is satisfactory for both
genders, but gender equality has not been attained in the other two factors.
Educational attainment
Unlike many other variables, there is almost no gender gap in educational attainment in Japan.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2016) states that 99% of males
and females aged 15 years and over are literate. Also, Wikigender (2015) says that in 2012,
100% of boys and girls were in elementary school, and on average women had 11 years of
education, and men had 12 years of education in their life. As for tertiary education, just like
secondary education, Japan is the smallest gender gap country among the 16 assessed countries,
because in Japan for every 100 women with tertiary education, a nearly equal number (103) of
Japanese men have one (The Conference Board of Canada, 2016). These statistics show almost
equal educational attainment by boys and girls in Japan.
Political and economic participation
Japan is known as a country which has a serious gender gap in political and economic
participation. In fact, Japans ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, stated that the womens
management positions both in the public and private sectors in Japan should go up to 30% by
2020, but Japan is almost the lowest country in terms of economic and political participation
among nations participating in the survey, according to Chino (2013). Koshi (2015) argues that
Japans female mayors are only 1%, and their participation in national diet and corporate
executives are 11% and 7% respectively, which is very low for OECD countries.
Gender gap at workplace and gender role
Poor conditions for women in the workplace and gender role in Japan affect Japans
working women negatively. Firstly, womens working condition in Japan is generally been
tougher than that of men. Those difficult working environments include lower pay and less
chance to be employed. Despite the fact that young women are almost as educated as men, the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2015) states, the employment gap in
2013 between men and women was around 18 %, and women earned nearly 27 % less money
than men did. Secondly, Japanese parents are having a hard time in balancing between life and
work, and this also makes it difficult for women to participate in the workforce. Although Japan

has been trying to pay more attention to the work-life balance, efforts have been limited
compared to other OECD countries (OECD, 2015).
Conclusion
Japans gender gap in education is nearly zero and satisfying, but there is a big gap in
political and economic participation, and a gender gap for women in workplaces. It is likely that
the gender role in Japan has a big impact on these unequal conditions for women. The notion is
that women have to work at home and take care of their children, and men have to work outside
and earn money for their family. Judging people based on their gender and treat women
unequally should not be allowed. Gender inequality in Japan needs to be solved as soon as
possible because this hastens the fall in Japans working population and aggravates the already
low birth rates. Therefore, the customs have to be changed for the Japans further improvement
for gender equality.

Lists of references

Chino, M. C. (2013, March 6). Closing the Gender Gap in Japan. Retrieved from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2013/03/closing-the-gender-gap-injapan/
Japan. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.wikigender.org/countries/east-asia-and-thepacific/gender-equality-in-japan/
Koshi, N. (2015, April 21). How can we improve gender equality in Japan? Retrieved
from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/04/how-can-we-improve-gender-equality-injapan/
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2015, April). Inequality
GREATER GENDER EQUALITY FOR MORE INCLUSIVE GROWTH.
Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/policy-briefs/japan--greater-gender-equalityfor-more-inclusive-growth.pdf
The Conference Board of Canada. (2016). Gender Gap in Tertiary Education.
Retrieved from http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/education/gender-gaptertiary.aspx
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2016). Effective
Literacy Programmes Programmes Region or Country Asia and the Pacific.
Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/uil/litbase/?menu=14