For those who have already decided that Japan’s “womenomics” movement is an empty promise, the Kanagawa Women’s Empowerment Support Group has plenty of ammunition.
Its pink-toned website introduces a panel of movers and shakers aiming to promote female empowerment in Kanagawa prefecture in the coming year: 11 high-profile corporate leaders — and all 11 of them men.
The all-male cast, pictured below the slogan “Women, increasingly taking on leadership roles”, fits with a theory that prime minister Shinzo Abe’s campaign to redress Japan’s ingrained gender inequality is stalled, disingenuous or was doomed from the start by a culture not yet ready to embrace that change.