Despite Increase, Women with Disabilities in Japan Face Wide Employment Gap

By Barrier Free Japan with an extract from The Asahi, Kyodo

March 8 2025

TOKYO – March 8 was International Women’s Day. The Asahi Shimbun reported that whilst there has been an increase in the number of women with disabilities in employment, women with disabilities only represent about 30 percent of all workers with such disabilities.

A labor ministry study found that in 1985, when the equal employment opportunity law was passed, 35.9 percent of all workers were women. That ratio increased to 40 percent in 2000 and 46 percent in 2023.

Since fiscal 2008, the ministry has also done surveys at five-year intervals regarding the employment of the disabled at companies with at least five employees. It then calculated the ratio of female employees classified by disability.

In fiscal 2023, it found that among workers with physical disabilities, 26.3 percent were women, a 6.3 percentage point increase over fiscal 2008.

Likewise, of workers with mental disabilities, 31.8 percent were women, an increase of 8.5 percentage points, while among workers with psychiatric problems, 32.8 percent were women, an increase of 1.4 percentage points.

While there has been an increase of women workers in all three categories, they only represent about 30 percent of all workers with such disabilities.

Another labor ministry study found that there is almost no difference in the gender ratio for those with disabilities.

According to the Kyodo News agency, “Japan ranked the third worst place among developed nations for working women for the second year in a row, according to the 2024 index compiled by British magazine The Economist”.