At an annual international conference on women empowerment in Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Tuesday to create women-friendly working environments as part of his drive to promote their participation in the workforce to offset Japan's shrinking population.
"We will create an environment in which women can be fully active, pursuing their goals for both work and family without undue hardship," Abe said at the third World Assembly for Women in Tokyo, dubbed WAW! Tokyo.
"The biggest, and indeed, the highest-priority challenge for us in bringing this about is reforming our ways of working," he continued. "I will spearhead these reforms as we press forward."