Japan’s Gender Pay Gap Progress Slows in 2024 As Female Managers Still Rare

The pace of closing the gender pay gap among full-time workers in Japan slowed in 2024, with the increase in the ratio of women in managerial positions remaining stalled, according to a recent Kyodo News survey.

On an index with men set at 100, average monthly wages for women stood at 75.8, meaning the gap improved by just 1.5 points from five years earlier, according to an analysis of data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, nearly 40 years after the country implemented a law to ensure equal opportunity and treatment between men and women in employment.

The difference was especially stark in the Tokai region in central Japan and the northern part of the Kanto region around Tokyo, as women moved to urban centers to leave areas that continue to hold fixed gender role attitudes.

Average monthly pay for men in 2024 was 363,100 yen compared with 275,300 yen for women, a gap of nearly 90,000 yen.

The disparity narrowed by 3.0 points over the five years to 2004, while shrinking by 2.4 points between 2004 and 2009 and by 2.6 points from 2009 to 2014. It has barely budged in the last decade, at just 1.7 points in the 2014-2019 period and 1.5 points in the five years through 2024.

“The gender pay gap has been improving, but the pace is slow,” said Akira Kawaguchi, professor of Doshisha University who specializes in work-life balance and gender equality, adding Japan is unlikely to realize equality on par with European countries in the next decades.

Women filled just 15.9 percent of section manager positions and 9.8 percent of managerial and director positions in 2024, according to the Cabinet Office.

Mie Prefecture posted the largest pay gap, followed by Ibaraki, Aichi, Tochigi and Shizuoka prefectures. Many were high-income regions with thriving manufacturing industries and low proportions of women in managerial positions.

The smallest pay gap was recorded in Okinawa, followed by Kochi, Tottori, Shimane and Tokushima prefectures, highlighting narrow disparities in lower-income regions.