Japan’s Record Percentage of Working Mothers Masks Low-Pay Jobs
- More women are still stuck in unstable, part-time work
- Japan is trying to bridge one of the worst pay gaps in the G-7
An employee works at a factory in Sabae, Fukui Prefecture, Japan.
Photographer: Shiho Fukada/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In a nod to Japan’s gradual efforts to level the playing field for women, the ratio of working mothers rose to a record last year, but the details reflect a still severe gender gap in the country.
Some 76% of mothers with children under the age of 18 were in the workforce in 2021, the health ministry said in a report Friday. That was nearly 20 percentage points higher than in 2004.