TOKYO, Japan: A government survey released on Friday claimed that the number of working women in Japan hit a record 30.35 million in 2022, a rise of 1.22 million from five years earlier.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications survey, 53.2 percent of women are employed, which is a record high. This increase is partially attributable to government initiatives to support moms trying to raise children while working.
The study found that while the number of working men declined marginally from the previous poll in 2017 to 36.71 million, the number of working women increased to 67.06 million.
A reduction of 1.3 percentage points from the previous poll was seen in nonregular employees, such as part-timers, who made up 21.11 million people, or 36.9% of all employed people, excluding executives.
As a cornerstone of his “new form of capitalism” strategy, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has promised to improve gender equality while promoting women’s economic independence.
A government council passed a women’s empowerment strategy last month that targeted having more female board members than male board members by 2030 for companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s elite Prime Market.
In the most recent survey, teleworking was a new question that respondents were asked, reflecting shifting work habits in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic. 19.1% of respondents, or 12.65 million workers, said they worked remotely the previous year.
Working parents comprised 85.2 percent of preschool parents, a 5.9-point increase from the previous year and the most significant percentage recorded since comparable data became available in 2012.
According to the government, supportive measures like parental leave and shortened workweeks have helped workers combine their work and family responsibilities.
A nationwide survey of 1.08 million people aged 15 and older living in about 540,000 households was done in October as part of a five-year cycle.
