Japan Sent A Man To Lead A G7 Meeting About Women’s Empowerment And Gender Equality
This is not the first time Japan has sent a man to a women’s leadership meeting.
Women representatives from the Group of Seven (G7) met at a two-day summit in Nikko, Japan, on women’s empowerment and gender equality.
However, Japan, the host country, was the only country to send a male representative, gender equality minister Masanobu Ogura, who also served as the chair of the summit.
The conference discussed a wide range of issues such as sexual violence, LGBTQ rights, the gender wage gap and the lack of women in executive and managerial positions.
When asked how it felt being the only male representative, Ogura told local paper Shimotsuke Shimbun that “male leaders with strong enthusiasm for gender equality are still needed,” TIME reported.
Only 10% of positions in Japan’s government are held by women, and prime minister Fumio Kishida’s cabinet only has two women ministers.
The country ranked the lowest out of G7 countries in the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Index, at 125th out of 146 countries.
In 2022, women represented only 11.4% of executives in major listed companies in Japan, according to cabinet data, the Japan Times reported.
This is not the first time Japan has sent a man to a women’s leadership meeting.
In 2018, Japan was also the only country to send a male representative to the first meeting of women foreign ministers in several countries.
