As countries around the world seek to improve their economies, the most productive and efficient countries are looking toward their workers. A new report has been developed by the World Economic Forum to examine how countries can create and maintain healthy, educated and able workers.
The Human Capital Index report, just released last month, is the first of its kind to examine the importance of human resources around the world.
Unfortunately Japan ranked 15th out of 122 countries in WEF's first Human Capital Index. Among the various measures of the quality of a country's human capital, Japan did fairly well in the area of health and wellness, but it ranked 28th in education, mostly because of the gender gap, where Japan came in at 74th. The economic participation gender gap was also a disappointing 88th.