Tokyo, Japan
The Group of Seven (G7) nations held a two-day summit on women’s empowerment and gender equality and women’s empowerment in the city of Nikko, Japan. However, the meeting turned out to be a situation of utter embarrassment for the hosts. Japan had to face embarrassment because it turned out to be the only country which was represented by a man.
It was expected that the gathering of women representatives at the summit will highlight the activities of women in Japan with women representatives of all member-states coming together. However, things turned weird after Japan’s Masanobu Ogura turned out to be the only man present at the gender equality meeting.
Japan, which was the host of the summit which took place 70 miles north of Tokyo, has long lagged behind its G7 peers in gender equality. The summit discussed issues ranging from sexual violence to LGBT rights and economic imbalances.
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The members also took the oath to reduce the wage gap and enhance the representation of women in executive and managerial positions.
How was the experience of the male representative?
A report published in a local paper Shimotsuke Shimbun in Japan quoted Ogura as being asked how he felt about being the only male representative in the summit, as saying that male leaders, who are strongly enthusiastic about gender equality are still required.
Japan's battle of gender disparity
The G7 summit was held in Nikko days after the latest annual Global Gender Gap Index was released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) which assesses the condition of gender parity across four key metrics which are educational attainment, economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment and health and survival.
Among the G7 states, Japan has ranked the lowest and was placed at 125 of 146 countries in the index. Meanwhile, the other G7 countries were ranked as - Germany (6th), the UK (15th), France (40th), the US (43rd), and Italy (79th).
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According to the WEF index, Japan is among the seven nations that have regressed on this metric since 2017. As per a report by TIME, although many female candidates were fielded by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in recent elections with some getting elected, however, men still occupy around 90 per cent of parliamentary and ministerial posts.
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