[2025 Gender Gap Index Flash Report] The gap between a stagnant Japan and improving developed nations becomes evident again this year

Hello. This is Taniguchi from #YourChoiceProject .

On June 11, the World Economic Forum (WEF) issued the "Global Gender Gap Report 2025," which was released on the 12th. This report is published annually by the WEF and calculates the degree of the gender gap in each country on a scale from 0 to 1.0, expressing it through rankings. In addition to the overall ranking, scores and rankings are also calculated for four sectors: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.

Japan's overall ranking in 2025 remains unchanged from last year at 118th.

Table 1 summarizes the rankings of G7 nations this year and Japan's ranking in 2024.

Japan's overall ranking in 2025 was 118th, unchanged from 2024. Looking at the score, it was 0.663 in 2024(WEF 2024: 219), and there is a slight improvement in 2025 to 0.666(WEF 2025: 227).

Japan's 2025 rankings by sector

Looking at each sector, rankings and scores generally increased, with the exception of the political sector. In particular, the economic sector saw its ranking rise from 120th to 112th, and its score increased from 0.568 to 0.613. This is thought to be due to an increase in scores for indicators other than wage equality, as well as the calculation of the ratio of skilled technical workers, which was not calculated last year and has a relatively high ranking. However, it remains at a low ranking and low score compared to other developed nations (WEF 2025: 227 & WEF 2024: 219). And regarding the political sector, which is problematic, the ranking fell from 113th to 125th, and the score decreased from 0.118 to 0.085. The number of female lawmakers increased by about 5%, and their score also increased from 0.115 to 0.186. However, the score for female cabinet ministers decreased significantly from 0.333 to 0.111 (

WEF 2025: 227 & WEF 2024: 219). Indeed, when comparing the Second Kishida Reshuffled Cabinet and the Second Ishiba Cabinet, the number of female ministers has decreased from 5 out of 24 to 2 (retrieved from the Prime Minister's Office of Japan, June 13, 2025). Since a female prime minister has yet to be born, Japan remains tied for last place (WEF 2025: 227 & WEF 2024: 219).

Improving developed nations

In the 2025 GGI, almost no improvement was seen in Japan. On the other hand, developed nations are showing improvement. Looking at the overall rankings of each country, Canada rose from 36th to 32nd (WEF 2025: 143 & WEF 2024: 135), Italy rose from 87th to 85th (WEF 2025: 223 & WEF 2024: 215), and the United States rose from 43rd to 42nd (WEF 2025: 371 & WEF 2024: 361). And the country that showed remarkable improvement is the United Kingdom. It raised its ranking from 14th to 4th, surpassing Germany, which had the highest ranking among the G7 last year (WEF 2025: 195, 369 & WEF 2024: 187, 357). Could the change of government to the Labour Party's Starmer cabinet have had an influence?

Summary

That was the flash report on the 2025 Gender Gap Index. This year's Gender Gap Report clearly showed the gap between a stagnant Japan and improving developed nations. I will provide a more detailed analysis of the causes of the ranking fluctuations at a later date.

Issues related to gender are fundamentally impossible to quantify because they arise from people's stereotypes. Also, it is inappropriate to be obsessed with rankings because there are many issues that are made invisible by the Gender Gap Index. However, it is very important data as a guideline for international comparison, and if the ranking goes up, it can definitely be said that the gender gap is moving toward improvement. As a short-term goal for achieving gender equality, I hope that Japan's ranking and score will rise as soon as possible. In addition, we at #YCP will continue our activities this year to contribute to improvement, even if only a little.

References

Prime Minister's Office of Japan, n.d., "List of Ministers, etc. of the Second Kishida Second Reshuffled Cabinet," (retrieved June 13, 2025, https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/101_kishida/meibo/index.html).
Prime Minister's Office of Japan, n.d., "List of Ministers, etc. of the Second Ishiba Cabinet," (retrieved June 13, 2025, https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/103/meibo/index.html).
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 2024, "Global Gender Gap Report 2024," (retrieved January 30, 2025, https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2024.pdf).
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 2025, "Global Gender Gap Report 2025," (retrieved June 13, 2025, https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2025.pdf).

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