Women make up 16% of executives in Japan's top-listed firms: study

    TOKYO, Oct. 16 Kyodo - Women accounted for 16.1 percent of executives at Japan's top-listed companies, a survey by its top business lobby showed Wednesday, up 2.8 percentage points from the previous year and moving steadily toward the government's goal of at least 30 percent by 2030.

    But women who were internally promoted to board members made up just 3.4 percent, or fewer than 300, of the total, highlighting the need for companies to enhance training programs to help female workers advance their careers to top positions.

    The survey by the Japan Business Federation, also known as Keidanren, examined 1,637 companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's top-tier Prime Market as of July 1, covering board directors, auditors and executive officers.

    "The number of internally promoted women is small," a Keidanren official said, proposing the need to utilize a mentoring system and other means of human resources development to help more women become executives.

    Of external board members, such as lawyers and certified accountants, the proportion of women stood at 33.1 percent.

    The number of listed companies that had no female executives declined significantly to 69 from 200 the previous year, while firms in which women made up at least 30 percent of executives were 138.

    Toward the 2030 goal, the government expects the ratio of female executives of companies on the Prime Market to rise to 19 percent in 2025 and for those without any women to fall to zero the same year.

    Companies have been making efforts to address the issue amid a growing tendency among institutional investors to consider the ratio of female executives and women in management.

    In the study, which was commissioned to the Japan Research Institute by Keidanren, the ratio of female executives among the 716 firms that were also members of the business lobby rose by 2.7 points to 16.8 percent.

==Kyodo