Tokyo, 12 June, /AJMEDIA/
Japan ranked 118th among 146 countries in the gender gap rankings in 2024, improving slightly from its record low of 125th last year but remaining the lowest among the Group of Seven industrialized nations, the World Economic Forum said Wednesday.
The Swiss think tank’s report showed women’s participation in Japan remains low in the political and economic arenas, in addition to their income levels remaining comparatively low.
While Japan saw some improvement, the country remains significantly behind other advanced economies. Among the G7 countries, Germany ranked the highest at 7th, while Italy ranked second-lowest at 87th but still well ahead of Japan.
Iceland topped the overall ranking, followed by Finland and Norway. New Zealand was the highest-ranked country in the East Asia and Pacific region in fourth place.
The report, which tracks progress toward gender equality in the fields of economy, politics, education and health, said the global pace toward achieving full parity has slowed. It is now estimated it would take 134 years, equivalent to five generations, to close the global gender gap, longer than the 2023 projection of 131 years.
But with 2024 being a bumper year for elections globally, with 60 national polls giving a vote to the most people ever in a single year, an opportunity is presented to impact the global gender disparity, according to the report’s publisher.
In the latest report, Japan was ranked 120th in economic participation and 113th in political empowerment. Men held five out of six leadership positions, and income disparities between men and women remain significant.
While the number of female ministers has increased, the overall female representation in parliament has shown “only marginal movement,” the report said.
The educational attainment ranking saw Japan drop from 47th to 72nd, while the health ranking remained relatively stable at 58th.
Despite the slide down the rankings, Japan’s overall performance slightly improved from last year, scoring 0.663 against 0.647 in 2023. The benchmark used in the study varies between 0 and 1, with 1 being full parity between men and women.
Still, Japan remained behind its neighbors South Korea and China, which came at 94th and 106th, respectively. In the East Asia and Pacific region, Japan was only ahead of Fiji, which ranked 128th.
The gender gap report has been released by the think tank annually since 2006. The 2024 report did not cover Russia, Myanmar, Afghanistan or Malawi.
© KYODO
