Irony of ironies: At G7 meet on women’s empowerment, host Japan sends a man

The Group of Seven (G7) nations met for a two-day summit on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the Japanese city of Nikko, but to the utter embarrassment of host Japan. Japan was represented at this meet by a man! The gathering at the summit was expected to highlight women’s activities in Japan with all the members having women representative, but Japan’s Masanobu Ogura was the only man at the gender equality meeting. Japan has longed lagged its G7 peers in gender equality was the host of the summit which took place over this weekend 70 miles north of Tokyo discussed everything from sexual violence to LGBT rights, economic imbalances. The members vowed to reduce the wage gap and enhance women’s representation in executive and managerial positions. How did he feel? A report by a local paper Shimotsuke Shimbun in Japan, when Ogura was asked how he felt being the only male representative, he said male leaders with strong enthusiasm for gender equality are still needed. Gender disparity in Japan The G7 summit in Nikko came mere days after the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its latest annual Global Gender Gap Index, which assesses the state of gender parity across four key metrics: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Japan ranked the lowest among the G7 states and was 125 of 146 countries in the index. Ranking of other G7 countries were - Germany (6th), the UK (15th), France (40th), US (43rd), and Italy (79th). At a press conference, Ogura said: “I explained during the event that Japan has been slow to make progress in promoting [women] in the political arena, but such moves are starting to gain momentum. Despite being the only male minister [in attendance], I received warm support from the other representatives.” As per the WEF index, Japan is one of only seven countries that have regressed on this metric since 2017. A report by TIME said though the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan fielded several female candidates in recent elections with some have been elected as lawmakers, but men still make up about 90 per cent of parliamentary and ministerial posts. Also, Japan has never yet been a female head of state. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.