Women's status in male-dominated Japan remains alarmingly low, according to a recent international survey. A U.N. Development Program survey showed that Japan ranked 38th among countries of the world in the gender empowerment index, which measures women's participation in political and economic decision-making. The Japanese index was conspicuously low for an industrial country and was even lower than comparable figures for Namibia, Botswana and the Philippines.
In January, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Japan raise the legal minimum marriage age for women to 18, the same as men, to promote gender equality. Some Japanese lawmakers, meanwhile, are in trouble for making remarks denigrating women.
In the face of criticism at home and abroad against gender inequalities in Japan, the government has been trying to elevate women's status. It promulgated the Male-Female Equal Opportunity Employment Law in 1985 and the Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society in 1999.