Japan's powerful patriarchy often sidelines women. Fixing that won't be easy

There was the Tokyo 2020 official who floated the idea of an "Olympig" creative campaign with plus-sized model Naomi Watanabe. An Olympic chief who resigned after making sexist remarks about women. And a Japanese governor who recommended men go grocery shopping during the pandemic because women take too long.

Just last week, a Japanese city manager sparked outrage when he gave a speech telling new employees to "play around" to remedy the country's plunging birth rate.
For decades, gaffe-prone men in positions of power have caused embarrassment and sparked outrage among younger generations and women in patriarchal Japan, which is ranked 120 out of 156 countries in the World Economic Forum's latest Global Gender Gap Index -- between Angola and Sierra Leone.

As of 2020, only 15% of senior and leadership posts were held by women, according to the Global Gender Report. And with only 14% of seats in Japan's parliament occupied by women, and most lawmakers aged between 50 to 70, male boomers dominate political and business life in the country.

Read more