The Gender Gap Index has been a hot topic lately. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2025 released on June 11, Japan ranked 118th out of 148 countries.
Every time this ranking is published, I find myself questioning the flood of critical voices that follow.
(Just to be clear: I personally believe gender equality is a good thing, and I welcome any improvement in Japan’s performance on the index.)
The index is divided into four main categories: Political Empowerment (0.118), Economic Participation (0.568), Education (0.993), and Health (0.973). The closer the number is to 1, the smaller the gender gap—meaning greater equality.
Since Japan’s scores in Education and Health are already close to 1 (though there may still be room for improvement), I’ll set those aside for now. The real concern lies in Political Empowerment and Economic Participation, especially the former, which is alarmingly low.
Improving these two areas requires greater participation of women in society. However, it’s said that around 30–40% of women in Japan actually prefer to become full-time homemakers. While I firmly believe that no woman should be hindered from pursuing a career if she wants one, I also wonder whether improving the index in these areas might actually lower the life satisfaction of women who don’t wish to enter the workforce. After all, if the numbers are to improve, it might mean that even those who don’t want to become politicians or earn an income like men would be expected to do so.
As a man, I’d be grateful if more women entered the workforce, earned more, and helped ease the strain on public finances and social security. I genuinely hope that happens.
Still, I can’t help but wonder: are the people criticizing Japan’s low ranking the same ones who want to be full-time homemakers? If so, are they aware that pushing for a higher score might end up making things harder for themselves?
[Writing an Essay with Generative AI]
Certainly, here's the English translation of the explanation about the Global Gender Gap Index:
The Global Gender Gap Index (GGI) is a metric published annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF) since 2006, quantifying gender disparities in various countries. Its purpose is to compare how much each country has achieved gender equality and to track progress in closing the gender gap in society.
1. Assessment Areas and Indicators of the Global Gender Gap Index
The Global Gender Gap Index evaluates countries across four main areas, comprising a total of 14 indicators:
-
Political Empowerment
- Ratio of women in parliament (lower house)
- Ratio of women in ministerial positions in the cabinet
- Years with female head of state (over the last 50 years) This area measures how equally men and women participate in politics and exercise leadership.
-
Economic Participation and Opportunity
- Labor force participation rate
- Wage equality for similar work
- Estimated earned income ratio (female to male)
- Ratio of women in managerial positions
- Ratio of women in professional and technical roles This area assesses gender disparities in employment rates, wage gaps, and the proportion of women in managerial and professional roles.
-
Educational Attainment
- Literacy rate
- Primary education enrollment rate
- Secondary education enrollment rate
- Tertiary education enrollment rate This area measures disparities in literacy rates and access to educational opportunities between genders.
-
Health and Survival
- Sex ratio at birth
- Healthy life expectancy This area measures disparities in life expectancy and access to healthcare between genders.
2. How the Global Gender Gap Index is Calculated
The index is scored on a scale from 0 to 1:
- 0: Complete inequality
- 1: Complete equality This means that a score closer to 1 indicates smaller gender disparities and greater progress in gender mainstreaming.
The basic calculation method is "female value ÷ male value." For example, if women make up 20% of parliamentarians and men make up 80%, the score would be . However, values exceeding 1.00 are capped at 1.00, meaning that a state where women outnumber men does not receive extra points.
The score for each area is calculated by a weighted average of the indicators within that area. The final overall score is then derived by a simple average of these four area scores. A unique feature of the calculation is that indicators with smaller country-to-country differences (based on their standard deviation) are given greater weight.
3. Problems with a Low Global Gender Gap Index Score
A low Global Gender Gap Index score, indicating significant gender inequality, can lead to various issues, including:
- Unequal employment opportunities and wages: Women may face barriers to certain occupations or receive lower wages than men for the same work. In Japan, wage gaps become noticeable after age 30, with a difference of nearly JPY 2 million between men and women in their 50s.
- Difficulties in career development: Life events such as marriage, childbirth, and childcare often disproportionately burden women, making it challenging to balance career and family.
- Decline in overall societal vitality: When women's abilities are not fully utilized, the overall productivity and creativity of society can decline.
- Acceleration of declining birth rates: A gender-unequal social structure can make it difficult for women to balance work and family, leading them to hesitate about having children, which in turn can accelerate declining birth rates.
4. Japan's Global Gender Gap Index
Unfortunately, Japan's Global Gender Gap Index has consistently remained low for many years, ranking last among G7 countries.
According to the "Global Gender Gap Report 2025" released on June 11, 2025, Japan ranked 118th out of 148 countries.
Japan's scores and ranks by area (2024 data) are as follows:
- Political: 0.118 (113th)
- Scores are particularly low due to the small proportion of female parliamentarians and the fact that no female prime minister has ever held office in the past 50 years.
- Economic: 0.568 (120th)
- Challenges include low labor force participation rates for women, wage gaps for similar work, and a low proportion of women in managerial positions.
- Education: 0.993 (72nd)
- While literacy rates and primary/secondary education enrollment rates are high, there is still room for improvement in higher education.
- Health: 0.973 (58th)
- This area maintains a relatively high standard.
In Summary
The Global Gender Gap Index is a crucial metric for objectively evaluating gender disparities in each country and making the challenges and progress towards achieving gender equality visible. Japan's political and economic spheres, in particular, require urgent improvement. Addressing gender disparities in these areas is essential for creating a more equitable and vibrant society.
