Japan to revamp women's empowerment forum, focus on youth ...
The Japanese government is set to overhaul its international symposium on women's empowerment to focus more on building up the next generation and strengthening cooperation with the United Nations, sources close to the matter said Sunday.
The move comes as the government has deemed it necessary for the World Assembly for Women, launched in 2014, to adopt a more practical approach by involving men and younger generations to address issues related to women and gender.
Japan continues to lag behind its peers in closing the gender gap, ranking 118th among 146 countries in the 2024 report by the World Economic Forum.
There are plans to hold the next international conference in 2025 centered on the theme of "women, peace and security," emphasizing women's involvement in conflict resolution and peacebuilding, the sources said.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses the opening ceremony of the sixth meeting of the World Assembly for Women in Tokyo on Dec. 3, 2022. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
The inaugural symposium, spearheaded by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as part of his efforts to boost female participation in the workforce, was held in September 2014 with Christine Lagarde, then managing director of the International Monetary Fund, among the attendees.
The fourth annual meeting in November 2017 featured Ivanka Trump, daughter and senior adviser of then U.S. President Donald Trump, as a speaker.
At the sixth event in December 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged his commitment to promoting policies that reflect the perspective of women. However, by this time the conference's role had diminished as most of the key issues regarding women's empowerment had been covered.
The government is set to rename the forum and shift the focus on sending Japanese youth to U.N. meetings and international events, as well as creating networking opportunities between young researchers from Japan and abroad.
The new program will also incorporate the women, peace and security agenda driven by Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.
In relation to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, the government is also considering organizing a symposium to discuss solutions to climate change and other global issues from a gender perspective, according to the sources.
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