"The World and Japan" Database (Project Leader: TANAKA Akihiko)
Database of Japanese Politics and International Relations
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS); Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (IASA), The University of Tokyo

[Title] Video Message by Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio on the Occasion of International Women's Day

[Place]
[Date] March 8, 2022
[Source] Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet
[Notes] Provisional Translation
[Full text]

Hello, everyone. I am KISHIDA Fumio, Prime Minister of Japan.

Today, March 8, is International Women's Day, as designated by the United Nations in 1975. I wish to express my sincere respect and appreciation for the passion and the efforts made by all those working earnestly for gender equality and women's empowerment on a day-to-day basis. I also want to celebrate this day together with all of you.

Promoting gender equality is an important and firmly-rooted policy of the Japanese Government and also a norm we share with the wider international community. Moreover, it is an indispensable element of a society that values individuality and diversity, which my Cabinet aims to achieve.

Regardless, it must be said that the current situation in Japan lags significantly behind that of other countries, as indicated by Japan's ranking of 120th place globally in the Gender Gap Index. Structural issues are considered to form the backdrop for our current circumstances, including the existence of a wage gap between men and women and fixed gender role awareness.

I believe financial independence is the key to responding to the challenges and structural issues that Japan's women are facing. I have placed financial independence at the very core of a "new form of capitalism," the showcase policy of the Kishida administration.

We will foster an environment in which women can be financially independent. We will achieve this by taking all manner of measures, including reviewing public prices, which will precede wage increases in the private sector, reviewing corporate disclosure rules with a view to rectifying wage discrepancies between men and women, and creating a society in which both men and women can work in the manner they choose.

As we mark International Women's Day, as prime minister I once again pledge to do my utmost to enable all women in Japan, and indeed all women around the world, to walk, full of vitality, down the paths that they themselves choose.