Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday presided over a ceremony to celebrate companies that have made progress in promoting women, just weeks after the government scaled back ambitious targets for increasing the number of female managers.
At the event for companies that "lead the way in letting women shine," Abe and gender equality minister Katsunobu Kato presented certificates honoring seven companies. One winner was Chiba Bank Ltd., a regional bank that raised the percentage of women in supervisory positions to 15 percent from 10 percent in the four years through 2015.
Abe is seeking to draw more women into the labor force — and keep them there — to bolster the world's third-largest economy as the population ages and shrinks. As part of that campaign, he embraced a decade-old target of placing women in 30 percent of management positions in all fields by 2020.