[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the 47th meeting of the Council for Gender Equality at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, discussion was held on the Fourth Basic Plan for Gender Equality.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said in his statement,

“We will approve the new Basic Plan for Gender Equality at an upcoming Cabinet meeting.
In this plan, we establish the reform of male-centric work customs and the support of active participation by women as new pillars.

The key to active participation by women will be whether or not women are able to choose from a variety of flexible working styles. We must change working styles that are premised on working long hours., and work efficiently within the limited time available. We will spread a corporate culture that values this. We will make it common for husbands and wives to share responsibilities for housework and childrearing.

We will achieve the concrete goals of ‘bringing the proportion of people working 60 hours or more per week to under 5%’ and ‘raising the number of men who take childcare leave to 13% or more.’

In every field, we will increase the proportion of women in leadership positions to 30% or more. First, we will widen the pool of suitable personnel. We will increase the proportion of women hired by companies, and provide women with the experience necessary to qualify them for leadership positions. This will lay the groundwork toward achieving the goal of having 30% of leadership positions occupied by women over the next five years.

I have said that we will ‘practice what we preach.’ Concerning public employees, we will increase the proportion of women in subsection chief positions within the Cabinet Office  to 30% by 2020.

We will realize a society in which all women shine. I want the relevant ministers to exert every effort to achieve these goals.”