TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe named five female cabinet ministers yesterday, leading by example in a country which economists say must make better use of its highly-educated but underemployed women.
The five make up more than a quarter of the 18-strong cabinet and come close to matching his declared aim for the percentage of women in senior positions.
“A society in which women shine is one of the big pillars of this government,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference before the announcement.
Abe has said he wants 30 percent of senior business and political positions occupied by women by 2020. “We have to revise ideas of seeing everything from men’s viewpoint,” Abe said in a speech earlier this year.
“The most underused resource we have is the power of women,” Abe said. “Japan must be a place where women are given the chance to shine.”
Government figures show only 11 percent of managerial jobs are occupied by women, compared with 43 percent in the United States and 39 percent in France.
The reshuffle, Abe’s first since coming to power in December 2012, is seen partly as an exercise in shoring up his power base in the sometimes-fractious Liberal Democratic Party, and partly aimed at re-enlivening a flagging economic and security agenda.
Observers say the LDP, the bastion of age-based seniority that has ruled Japan for most of the last 60 years, is crammed with lawmakers who feel they have served their time on the back benches and deserve a shot at a government job.
The female appointments -- up from two in the last cabinet -- marked a shift in emphasis for a body usually dominated by older men, where women frequently appear to be little more than a cosmetic afterthought.
One of those who won a ministerial portfolio was Yuko Obuchi, 40, the daughter of former premier Keizo Obuchi. She became the first woman to assume the powerful post of economy, trade and industry minister.
Among other female politicians getting the nod were Midori Matsushima, 58, as justice minister, and Haruko Arimura, 43, as minister in charge of women’s activities.
AFP
