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Opinion

Gender diversity in Japan Inc. must blast past tokenism

One in 10 female board members is nowhere near ambitious enough for culture change

| Japan
Only a meaningful minority can raise a red flag against group think.   © Reuters

For the first time, over 10% of board members at TOPIX 100 companies are women. Reaching 10.5% as of July 2019, this represents an increase of 2.5% from the previous year. While a step in the right direction, it would be delusional for Japan Inc. to start congratulating itself.

First, this figure pales in comparison to the U.K. FTSE 350 and U.S. S&P 500 companies, where over 30% and 27% of board members are women, respectively. The OECD average is 22%.

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