Abe reiterates women's role in improving Japan's workforce

Abe reiterates women's role in improving Japan's workforce

TOKYO, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday reiterated his support for improving women's role in the country's workforce and vowed to achieve the goal of having women hold 30 percent of senior management position in Japan by 2020, according to local media.

Addressing at a meeting named Women in Business here, Abe said that "Japan's future is resting on whether we can allow everyone to achieve their goals regardless of gender, age or disability," adding "the advancement of women will allow the whole of Japan to discover new values and become a more dynamic society," Japan's Kyodo News quoted Abe as saying.

The prime minister has pledged to provide 300,000 new after- school care places for children in the first three years of elementary school in order to ensure that their parents can work a full day in an effort to implement his "womenomics."

Kathy Matsui, managing director, chief Japanese strategist and co-head of Asia Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research at Goldman Sachs, said engaging women in the workforce would be crucial in protecting Japan's economy from the effects of a rapidly shrinking working population, according to Kyodo.

Matsui attributed women's less participation in work to a lack of satisfaction with their careers, adding that the problem can be improved by providing more female role models in senior government and commercial positions and closing the pay gap between men and women.

Analysts here said women's engagement in working is a key to change current Japan's workforce shortage and will help recover the country's economy.