Japan’s Womenomics Reforms

Context

The set of “womenomics” reforms  implemented during the “Abenomics” era by Japan are now yielding positive outcomes.

Key Highlights On Japan’s Womenomics Reforms

• Increase in Women’s labor force participation rate (WLFPR): WLFPR in Japan has grown by ten percentage points, from 64.9 percent in 2013 to 75.2 per cent in 2023. 
  • This is not only the fastest growth in Japan’s WLFPR in the past few decades, but also the highest amongst the G7 countries in the last decade. 
  • The largest increase in WLFPR is in the 30-34, and 35-39 years age groups signaling the return of mothers to the workforce.
• Bridging Labour Shortages: Adding roughly three million women to its workforce is helping Japan bridge labor shortages. 
  • Estimates suggest this increase in WLFPR could have increased Japan’s GDP per capita by between 4 per cent to 8 per cent.
  • It’s no surprise that a majority of the “womenomics” reforms have been linked to investments in the care economy and rebalancing gender norms.

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Japan’s Womenomics Reforms/Rethinking Care Work and Responsibility

• Expansion of Daycare Capacity: The Japanese government’s investment to expand daycare capacity from 2.2 million in 2012 to 2.8 million in 2018 has reduced daycare waiting lists that would often run into years. 
  • In 2023, the government of Japan announced a further boost in investment of $26 billion for childcare measures between 2023 and 2026.
• Entitlement of Gender-neutral Parental leave: Japanese parents had been entitled to year-long partially paid parental leaves with women receiving 58 weeks, and men 52 weeks. 
  • In 2022, greater flexibility in paternity leave provisions was introduced, reducing notice periods, and allowing men to break up their paternity leave. 
  • Other measures include making disclosures of paternity leave uptake mandatory, introducing flexible work, and encouraging companies to demonstrate that taking paternity leave would not hamper career progression.
  • These have helped in boosting paternity leave uptake from 2 per cent in 2012, to 17 per cent in 2023.
• Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace, 2016: This made disclosures of diversity action plans and diversity data mandatory.
  • It led to the introduction of the “Eruboshi” certification, a five-star system recognising companies committed to workforce diversity. 
  • The certification has become aspirational among Japanese firms today, with the number of companies receiving the Eruboshi certificate growing from 815 in 2019, to 1905 in 2022.
• Gender Gaps in Unpaid Care: Among the G20 countries, India and Japan have the widest gender gaps in unpaid care.
  • Women perform about 8.4 times the amount of unpaid work in India valued at 15 per cent to 17 percent of GDP in contrast to 5.5 times in Japan valued at about a fifth of GDP.

Learnings For India

• Bridging the gender gaps in domestic and care work: Interventions for these have a significant impact on WLFPR. 
  • Japan saw its highest gains in WLFPR when it committed to long-term public investments in care infrastructure and services, especially childcare.
• Changing perception Around Social Norms: Changing people’s mindsets around social norms is as important as formulating progressive regulations. 
  • It is evident from the Japanese experience, legal entitlement to gender-neutral parental leave is not sufficient. 
  • Enhancing uptake among men requires an employer-led approach that dispels gender stereotypes around care work.
• Investment in care infrastructure and services solutions: It is essential to invest in a wide range of care infrastructure and services solutions — covering childcare, elder care, domestic work, and long-term care for highly dependent adults to reduce dependency and access the silver economy. 
  • For instance, Japan has leveraged some private sector partnerships for investments in affordable senior living and care services. 
  • As the share of elderly persons in India’s population is expected to rise from 10 per cent currently to 20 per cent by 2050, India will need to prioritise elder care infrastructure and service investments.

What Is Womenomics?

• Genesis: Womenomics was started by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  However, originally the term was introduced in a report published by the chief Japan strategist Kathy Matsui and her Team in 1999. 
  • The report was published in Goldman Sachs’ Global Investment Research Division titled as ‘ Womenomics: Buy the Female Economy’
• About: It is a policy based on the idea that a country can boost its economy by getting more women into the workforce and their empowerment. They are rewarded with jobs and salaries that match their skills, talents, and ambitions. 

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Why Is Womenomics Important?

• Traditionally Divided Roles: Usually, the traditional role for men is to earn while the woman takes care of the home and the family. 
  • In societies that follow this system- men bear the complete burden of earning money for the whole family.
• No Recognition of Women’s Role: Women are capable of contributing in society but due to the restriction and usual social norms their education, skill, and economic contribution never get the reward and compensation.
  • Families are important but the role of women in economics can not be ignored.

Progress On Womenomics in India

• Unpaid Care Work: Most of the work done by women remains unpaid in the house and in supporting families as women are expected to take care of the families without being paid.
• Huge Pay Gap: Gender Pay gap is substantial, and yet women don’t get equal pay for equal work. 

Challenges in India

• Cultural Hurdles: The country has cultural hurdles where roles assigned to women are keeping them away from contributing to society. 
• Relationship of LFPR with Women and Education: The LFPR pattern shows U shaped relationship with women. As women get more education, the LFPR initially falls i.e., they are restricted at home.  
• Lack of Social Benefits: Many women work in low-productive jobs often without social benefits. Women don’t join jobs because of a lack of suitable jobs and lack of marketable skills.

Reasons For Low Female Participation in India

According to an OECD paper,  key determinants of low participation of women in the job market in India are: 

• South and west India: Impact of socioeconomic factors. 
• East India: Domination of cultural factors. Ex-Nagaland, where the state government tried to provide 33 percent reservation for women and due to protest the bill could not be passed in the state.  
• Stringent labor laws discourage women’s participation.

Five-Pillar Strategy to Unlock Business Opportunities in India’s Care Economy

• Gender neutral and paternity leave policies
• Subsidies for availing/providing care services
• Enhancing investments from both the public and private sector in care infrastructure and services
• Skill training for care workers
• Quality assurance for care services and infrastructure.

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Conclusion

After nearly declining continuously for five decades, India’s WFLPR has begun showing a rising trend, increasing from 23 per cent in 2017-18 to 37 per cent in 2022-23. 

• To keep this momentum going, a continued long-term focus on the care economy is needed for unleashing #NariShakti to achieve a Viksit Bharat @2047.