ABSTRACT
By many cross-national measures of gender equality, Japanese women do not fare well. Compared to other industrialized democracies (and even compared to many developing or less democratic countries), Japanese women suffer more discrimination in the workforce, have the lowest level of female representation in parliament and government bureaucracy and are subject to various discriminatory practices. At the same time, Japanese women are equal or nearly equal to men in terms of educational attainment and measures of health and life expectancy. How is it that women in one of the wealthiest countries in the world are so under-represented politically and economically? This chapter considers Japan in comparative context and analyzes how institutional, structural and cultural factors hinder women’s equality.
