21/11/2014
Shinzo Abe: Unleashing the Power of 'Womenomics' - WSJ
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Shinzo Abe: Unleashing the Power of 'Womenomics'
Our goal in Japan is to boost women in the workforce significantly by 2020 and reduce pay disparity.
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By SH IN ZO ABE
Sept. 25, 2013 6:51 p.m. ET
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I have no idea who first coined the word "Abenomics." It was not my original term for the
set of anti-deflation, growth-promotion policies I am now pursuing.
I do know, however, who first promoted one concept that is a vital component of
Abenomics: "Womenomics." In 1999, Kathy Matsui and her colleagues at Goldman
Sachs first advocated that Japan could increase its gross domestic product by as much
as 15% simply by tapping further its most underutilized resource—Japanese women.
Fourteen years have elapsed since then, and the idea has finally entered Japan's political
lexicon. Womenomics will feature prominently in my address on Thursday at the United
Nations General Assembly. Unleashing the potential of Womenomics is an absolute
must if Japan's growth is to continue. Womenomics also holds the key to enhancing
growth in Africa, an economic powerhouse in the making.
Japan is a country with a shrinking population caused by a seemingly intractable decline
in its birthrate. But Womenomics offers a solution with its core tenet that a country that
hires and promotes more women grows economically, and no less important,
demographically as well.
In 2010, Ms. Matsui and her colleagues wrote: "Contrary to popular opinion, higher female
employment could actually help raise, not lower, fertility rates." Proposals to boost female
employment and grow Japanese families include "expanded daycare and nursing care
services, implementation of flexible work arrangements, [and] more objective evaluation
and compensation systems."
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David Gothard
My government's growth plan forecasts
that a 2% increase in productivity over the
mid to long term will produce, in 10 years,
an average of 2% in real (inflationadjusted) GDP growth and 3% in nominal
GDP growth. To achieve this, we must
capitalize on the power of women. We
have set the goal of boosting women's
workforce participation from the current
68% to 73% by the year 2020. Japanese
women earn, on average, 30.2% less than
men (compared with 20.1% in the U.S.
and just 0.2% in the Philippines). We must
bridge this equality gap.
The target year 2020 will coincide with the return of the Olympics to Tokyo. I am
determined that by that time Japan's boardrooms will be enhanced by a greatly increased
number of female directors. I will do all that I can to facilitate this change.
Womenomics also has a vital role to play in Africa. For Africa, food scarcity and
malnutrition remain long-standing challenges. Donor countries have made efforts to
boost food production, but my government aims to go one step further, enabling a
transition beyond subsistence agriculture to agriculture that puts money in farmers'
pockets. This can be achieved only through empowering women, the primary farm labor
force in Africa.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303759604579091680931293404
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21/11/2014
Shinzo Abe: Unleashing the Power of 'Womenomics' - WSJ
A case in point is what the Japanese development specialist Jiro Aikawa has achieved
among female African farmers. As a young member of the Japan Overseas Cooperation
Volunteers—Japan's equivalent of the U.S. Peace Corps—Mr. Aikawa worked in
Tanzania as a volunteer agricultural instructor. Through his involvement in African
agriculture, he has succeeded in doubling the incomes of 2,500 farmers in Kenya.
Africa's agriculture will not grow strong unless Africa's women are first empowered, and
unless Africa's agriculture is made robust, Africa itself will not thrive. This is his
conviction.
One of Mr. Aikawa's strategies is to promote women farmers' understanding of the
consumer market: He encourages them to visit small village markets to monitor what is
selling well so that they can then efficiently produce high-value agricultural products. The
goal is to move beyond agriculture that merely enables the farmer to eat, to agriculture
that enables the farmer to earn money.
That strategy and other ways of helping farmers develop and implement their own action
plans are part of what is known as the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment Project, or
SHEP. Japan is preparing to promote this model in 10 countries in Africa. It is
Womenomics for Africa. All this is part of Japan's commitment to support growth in
Africa over the next five years through public and private partnerships totaling $32 billion.
I will make other proposals at the U.N. for further empowering women and will promise to
spend more than $3 billion in the three years to come solely for that purpose—all in the
firm belief that Japan, Africa and countries around the world can benefit.
Mr. Abe is the prime minister of Japan.
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