Mandatory quotas for hiring and promoting women are options Japan could consider to take its "womenomics" push to the next level, according to the social policy chief at the OECD.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government deserves credit for striving to improve the status of women in the labor force, but a lot more still needs to be done, particularly in the private sector, said Monika Queisser, who serves as senior counselor for gender issues to the OECD secretary-general.
The Abe administration made advancing women in the workplace one of its top priorities early on. Japan's business culture has traditionally been dominated by men, but the country's labor shortage means it needs to get more women into productive roles. The lack of women in leadership positions also limits the diversity of views in corporate boardrooms, and means companies forgo the talents and abilities of half of the country's highly educated population.