Japan’s prime minister picked a record-matching five women for his cabinet Wednesday, sending the strongest message yet about his determination to revive the economy by getting women on board as workers and leaders.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set a goal of having women in 30 per cent of leadership positions by 2020, and proved he is out to practice what he preaches in his selection for the 18-member cabinet, which includes Yuko Obuchi, daughter of a former prime minister, as the trade and economy minister.
Having five women in the Cabinet is extremely rare for Japan, and is the record number set in 2001.
The previous cabinet, dissolved earlier in the day, had two women ministers. Abe has stressed that his policies of economic growth, dubbed “Abenomics,” center around utilizing the talent of women and empowering them, or so-called “womenomics.”
Since he took office in late 2012, the world’s third-biggest economy after the US and China has been on a recovery track, with stock prices rising and major companies’ earnings improving.
Several top ministers were retained, such as Fumio Kishida as foreign minister and Taro Aso as finance minister, both men.
Although holding ministerial positions are in some ways ceremonial in Japan — where government affairs are largely run by professional bureaucrats, who stay on regardless of new ministers — expanding the presence of women in a place as high-profile as the Cabinet is a victory for sexual equality in Japan.
