The lifetime disposable income for households with women who continue to work after childbirth is 167 million yen higher than that of those who quit their jobs and remain unemployed, a Japanese government estimate showed on Wednesday.
The estimate “reaffirmed the economic significance of women’s active involvement in professional life,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a government meeting.
The government will promote workplace reforms to achieve structural wage increases and a more active role for women, he said.
An interim report on the causes of the gender pay gap and measures to address it was announced at the meeting.
The report states that behind this disparity lies an unconscious bias not only among men, but also among women themselves, such as that women should serve in non-career positions or cannot perform certain tasks.
The report also cited a difference in working years between men and women and the absence of female managers to serve as role models as other reasons.
The government has called on five sectors, including finance and insurance, food production and retail, to draw up action plans for improvement by the end of this year. It also pledged to develop a national business database that ranks the average seniority of women.
