Japan Faces Ongoing Gender Gaps as International Women’s Day Approaches

By Barrier Free Japan

March 4 2026

TOKYO – As International Women’s Day on March 8 approaches, gender equality advocates in Japan are highlighting the need to break entrenched stereotypes in media and address the continued underrepresentation of women in politics.

Naoe Yakiya, director of the Japan office of UN Women, has underscored the importance of ensuring greater diversity among media and advertising professionals to help dismantle fixed gender roles.

“Advertising has the power to change social norms,” Yakiya, 52, said in an interview with Jiji Press ahead of International Women’s Day, emphasizing the influence media and advertising can have in shaping society.

Yakiya has been working to eliminate gender stereotypes since assuming her post in February last year as head of the Japan office of the U.N. body dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.

An international survey conducted about five years ago by UN Women found that roughly 70 percent of Japanese respondents said they did not see themselves reflected in advertising, as people’s values diversify amid social changes such as internationalization.

The Japan National Chapter of the Unstereotype Alliance, launched by UN Women in 2020, includes cosmetics maker Shiseido Co and other companies. The initiative works to break down simplistic portrayals such as “men are strong” or “women like pink.”

At the same time, gender imbalance persists in national politics.

Although Sanae Takaichi became Japan’s first female prime minister last October, the proportion of women in the House of Representatives fell in the Feb. 8 general election. Sixty-eight women were elected to the lower chamber of the Diet, accounting for 14.6 percent of the total, down from a record 73 women, or 15.7 percent, in the previous Lower House election in 2024.

“We’ll work to ensure that women participate in various decision-making in society as a common goal of the public and private sectors,” Takaichi, who also heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said at a Council for Gender Equality meeting in December last year.

However, in the latest Lower House poll, held about a month and a half after her comment, the proportion of LDP female candidates stood at 12.8 percent, or 43 women.

“There was no instruction to actively field female candidates,” a senior LDP election campaign official said. “The Lower House dissolution was so sudden that it was the last thing on our minds.”

The number of female ministers in Takaichi’s second Cabinet, formed after the poll, also remained at two, underscoring the challenges that remain in achieving greater gender balance in Japanese political leadership.