The number of working women in Japan reached a record 30.35 million in 2022, marking an increase of 1.22 million from five years earlier, a government survey showed Friday.
The survey by the internal affairs ministry also showed the employment rate among women hit a record high of 53.2%, partly attributed to government efforts to help mothers work while raising children.
While the number of working men slightly decreased from the previous survey in 2017 to 36.71 million, the increase in working women boosted the combined working population to a record 67.06 million, according to the survey.
The number of nonregular employees, such as part-timers, stood at 21.11 million, accounting for 36.9% of employed individuals, excluding executives, and marking a decrease of 1.3 percentage points from the previous survey.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to promote the economic independence of women as a core pillar of his "new form of capitalism" policy by stepping up efforts to advance gender equality.
Last month, a government council approved a women's empowerment policy that included a goal of raising the ratio of female board members to more than 30% by 2030 at firms listed on the top-tier Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The latest survey asked respondents for the first time about teleworking, reflecting changing workstyles in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 19.1%, or 12.65 million, of workers responding that they had worked remotely in the past year.
Among parents of preschool children, working parents accounted for 85.2%, up 5.9 points and the highest since comparable data became available in 2012.
Supportive measures, such as parental leave and reduced working hours, have helped workers balance work and child-rearing, the ministry said.
The survey, conducted every five years, was carried out last October and covered approximately 1.08 million individuals age 15 and above in around 540,000 households nationwide.