Japan has a gender problem, and we're told it starts in the workplace.
As of 2009, female manager accounted for a dismal 1 percent of managers, and according to data from 2010, women comprised 4 percent of Japanese CEOs. In 2010, 19 percent of students matriculated in doctoral programs in science were female, although the Cabinet Office's Gender Equality Bureau reports that in 2012 only 13.8 percent of professionals in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) were female.
So why is this significant? Because of its focus on expanding women in the workforce, in management positions and in leadership roles, "Abenomics" has been sometimes dubbed "womanomics." The success this portion of the "third arrow" of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policies rests on the premise that the lack of women in the workforce is merely a structural problem, one readily solved by government initiatives aimed at, among others, cracking the country's glass ceiling.