Financial firms in Japan mandated to publish ratio of women in senior roles

The new regulation, expected to be mandatory from April next year, will affect some 4,000 listed businesses in the country.
By: | May 17, 2022
Topics: DE&I | Japan | Leadership | News

Japan’s financial services watchdog will require listed companies to reveal the ratio of women in senior roles within their firms’ annual securities report. 

The new regulation, expected to be mandatory from April next year, will affect some 4,000 firms.

The Financial Services Agency will also require businesses to disclose average pay by gender and the ratio of male employees who take childcare leave, aimed at providing investors with a better picture of how companies are performing on gender equality metrics.  

Previous Japanese administrations have passed legislation to support women to remain in employment after having children, although issues on the gender gap still exists.

READ: More Japan employees open to minimum wage hike

In 2003, the government announced a target of having 30% of all management positions filled by women by 2020. But official statistics for the year showed that only 13.2% of managers were female.

Japan has also ranked 120 out of 156 nations in the world for overall gender gap, based on recent statistics by the World Economic Forum.