Japan Inc lag far behind women empowerment in management roles: Reuters poll

The survey results underscored Japan's struggle to raise the share of women in leadership roles to 30% as part of the biggest business lobby Keidanren's campaign to empower women, dubbed "womenomics".

Japan's global ranking on gender parity stood at 121 of 153 countries in a World Economic Forum report for 2020.

The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted during June 3-14, found that more than 80% of Japanese companies said women make up less than 10% of management - results similar to the previous surveys conducted last year and in 2018.

According to the survey, 86% of the survey respondents said it was impossible to achieve the target by 2030.

"Until a while ago we hired many men, so it takes time to fix the balance," a chemicals maker manager wrote.

"We need first to raise the ratio of female managers, but we must also reform the corporate culture," a transportation firm manager wrote.

There are very few female employees to begin with and setting a numerical target is questionable, companies said in the survey, urging changes to Japan's male-oriented corporate culture and calling for more support such as childcare.

"It's impossible unless our society changes in a way that encourages women to be promoted to key posts," a service firm manager wrote.

The survey, conducted for Reuters by Nikkei Research, canvassed 481 large- and mid-size non-financial firms. About 230 firms answered the questions on condition of anonymity.

The survey also found that 36% of Japanese firms expect coronavirus-led impact on supply and demand likely to cease in several months, but 32% saw no signs of improvement from the pandemic fallout. About 18% saw it ceasing now and 9% said they had no impact.