According to reports out of Japan overnight one of Shinzo Abe’s key initiatives to help stimulate the domestic economy has failed to take off.
Hundreds of firms had been expected to apply for cash rewards in exchange for reaching targets to place women in high-ranking jobs and train female workers for senior positions. The plan launched last year would have seen successful firms each receive up to 300,000 yen in compensation.
But a 120 million yen budget earmarked for 500 expected applicants went unused, said a spokeswoman for the health ministry, which had been tasked with administering the program.
Not one Japanese company applied for a subsidy program aimed at promoting more women to senior jobs, an official said Monday, an embarrassing blow for Tokyo’s push to boost the economy with female workers.
The news came as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to push initiatives for women’s empowerment at a United Nations meeting in New York Sunday.
Last month, Japan also enacted a law forcing larger firms to disclose their targets for hiring female employees and promoting them to senior positions.
Abe has frequently said women were key to his bid to stimulate the world’s third largest economy, and has pushed for them to fill more senior roles in both politics and business.
Japan has one of the lowest rates of female workforce participation in the developed world, and most economists agree it badly needs to increase the number of working women as the population rapidly ages.
A lack of childcare facilities, poor career support and deeply entrenched sexism are blamed for keeping women at home.
After calibration on the hiring requirements and with a larger payout threshold in place a new revised offer would begin to roll out from October.
