Due to Japan’s ageing population and continuous declining birth rate, its

workforce population has begun to shrink. Japan must find a way to effectively utilize their resources and prevent the economic downturn that is sure to occur if the previously stated trends continue in the same manner. In this synthesis paper, the issues prevalent in Japanese society in regards to gender equality will be discussed. In addition to analyzing and critiquing Japan’s current Equal Employment Opportunity Law—which best fits this paper’s aim to increase the number of women in the workforce and has been revised multiple times, providing multiple points of comparison—this paper compares Japanese and Swedish society. Sweden is globally ranked  third in gender equality. The reasoning behind this choice of comparison is discussed in the paper.

In order to successfully encourage Japanese women to enter the workforce

while giving them leniency in childrearing, this research paper concludes that the Japanese government must alter the law to create easy access to employee-employer mediation, destroy the loopholes in the law by creating substantial punishments for companies that fail to obey the law (such as fines and/or mandatory mediation), improve accessibility to childcare, shape Japanese society into one that frequently elects women into high-level company or government positions and encourages parents to share the responsibility of caring for their child, and potentially placing gender equality experts; multiple experts would be placed in provinces with populous metropolitan areas.