`` Women are Japan 's most underutilized resource . '' So said Japan 's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in April as he outlined a raft of measures aimed at closing the gender gap in the Japanese workforce . As a Western journalist new to Japan , it is a shock that it takes an economic argument to move the government to act toward more female participation in the workforce . But it 's not just a foreign perspective . The noted economist Noriko Hama writes in the Japan Times this week , `` You secure better working conditions for women because they have a rightful claim to such treatment . No other reasoning or justification is necessary to do something that is decent and just . '' Nevertheless , if you are a prime minister in urgent search of growth , the numbers behind so-called `` womenomics '' in Japan are compelling . 'If you were to close the employment gap between Japanese men , which is 80 % , one of the highest in the OECD , with Japanese women -- which is still around 60 % -- we estimate that you 'd add about 8.2 million workers into the Japanese workforce , '' says Kathy Matsui of Goldman Sachs , who has long championed the cause . That influx of female workers `` could lift the asset level of Japanese GDP by as much as 14 % , '' she adds . Now Prime Minister Abe is trying to force corporations to act . He has set targets of at least one female executive per company and offered tax incentives to companies that encourage mothers to return to work . Despite equal employment opportunities enshrined into law in 1986 , real equality within most domestic Japanese companies remains within the realm of fantasy-land . Naoko Toyoda had worked for 10 years with an IT company but was demoted to a starting position when she came back after the birth of her first child . `` Women who choose not to have a child would continue up the corporate ladder while those who did would be forced into semi-retirement , '' she says . She did n't expect flexibility from the company 's side though . `` Once one exception is allowed , other mothers would complain they were n't treated in the same way , '' she says . So she quit . According to Goldman Sachs , some 70 % of Japanese women choose to leave the workforce after they 've had children . That 's more than twice the number in the U.S. or Germany . But unlike the U.S. and Germany -- where childcare is cited as the major factor for why women leave work -- in Japan , uncompromising work environments , which demand face-time and offer little career mobility for women , persuade most mothers to give up corporate life . A 2011 study by the Center for Work-Life Policy called `` Off-Ramps and On-Ramps Japan : Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success '' found that three quarters of Japanese women want to rejoin the workforce after they 've had children , but only 43 % manage to get their careers back on track . Those who do return to work tend to take salary cuts and often find themselves , like Toyoda , marginalized within the company . Cosmetics giant Shiseido does better than most . Since 1990 its childcare support program has been in continual evolution , providing employees with extensive leaves of parental absence , shorter working hours , childcare subsidies and on-site nursery facilities . It is also working on a gender equality action plan to boost its ratio of female leaders though it admits it will miss its slated target of 30 % by end 2013 . Shigeto Ohtsuki , executive director of human resources at Shiseido , describes the management style in the past as `` very slow moving . '' Even though Shiseido is an example of corporate best practice in Japan , Ohtsuki admits there is still some way to go along the road towards true daibashitii , the Japanese word for diversity . `` The female leader ratio in Japan Shiseido Group , representing 25,000 employees is still 25.6 % whereas female leader ratio overseas where we have 20,000 employees is almost 60 % , '' Ohtsuki says . Yuki Honda joined Shiseido in 1989 . She met her husband there and they have two children . She feels grateful to the company for continuing to support and promote her throughout . `` I think I was fortunate with this company because they did not assume we women would quit after childbirth and they educated us so we 'd continue to work , '' she says . Japan 's bleak demographic outlook is well known . The birth-rate is shrinking , the population is getting older and there are fewer workers ' to pay for the nation 's pensioners . The IMF forecasts Japan 's population will shrink by around 30 % by 2055 . Abe 's push to make the workplace a more hospitable place for women -- quite apart from the argument that it 's just more fair -- is also a matter of economic survival . Whether Japan 's male corporate bosses are listening remains to be seen .
Toyoda is pushing measures to close the gender gap in the nation 's workforce . Prime Minister Naoko Toyoda : ` ` Women are Japan 's most underutilized resource Japanese women face strong cultural pressure to leave the workforce after having a child . Analyst : Workforce parity `` could lift the asset level of Western GDP by 30 % ''