Women made up only 7.7% of executives at major companies on average, according to a nationwide poll on the promotion of women's participation in the workplace conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun, failing to meet a goal of 10% at listed companies the government called for by 2020 in its fourth basic plan on gender equality.
The poll was conducted in October. Questionnaires were sent to 120 major companies, including automakers, electric appliance manufacturers and trading companies. Responses were obtained from 111 firms, a response rate of 92.5%.
The average proportions of female executives as of April in 2016 -- the year the Law to Promote Women's Participation in the Workplace went into force -- and the same month in 2018 and 2020 were 4.9%, 6.1% and 7.7%, respectively, which shows there has been some growth but the figure remains low.
Ten companies did not have a single female executive.
Women are often not promoted to managerial positions because they are forced to balance work and family duties, causing them to miss out on advancement opportunities.
The percentage of female managers at section chief level or higher was 7.0% in 2016, 8.5% in 2018 and 9.9% in 2020, according to the poll.
Some of the main reasons given for not promoting women were: "Having and raising children delay the timing of career advancement," and, "There are few women who meet the requirements for advancement and promotion."
The government initially set a target of having women make up 30% of leadership positions -- equivalent to a corporate section chief or higher -- by 2020, but later decided to delay this to "as soon as possible in the 2020s" due to the difficulty of achieving the goal.
"It's unfortunate that nearly 10% of companies still have zero female executives," said Hosei University Prof. Emiko Takeishi, who studies human resource management theory. "This is probably due to low awareness of the necessity among top management and a lack of suitable human resources. Internal promotions are important, and while it's time-consuming, I hope [companies] will carefully recruit and train women to become female executives."
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