Japan Enacts Gender Pay Disclosures

In 2022, Japan implemented the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workforce, requiring companies to publicly report gender wage gaps. This law mandates that companies with more than 300 employees disclose their gender pay gap annually within three months after the end of their fiscal year, with most Japanese companies making their first disclosures by June 2023. The reporting includes a detailed analysis of pay disparities among all employees and specific groups, such as full-time and part-time workers.

The Act aims to address Japan’s significant gender wage gap, which, according to 2022 OECD data, stands at 22.1%, ranking Japan 4th lowest among 38 OECD countries. The gap is largely due to the low percentage of female managers and the high proportion of women in part-time or fixed-term positions.

In addition to the wage gap disclosure, companies with more than 100 employees must submit annual gender-based “general employer action plans,” which now include gender pay gap analysis for larger companies. These plans, which outline goals and measures for improving female participation in the workforce, must be made public and submitted to labor bureaus for review.

Reference Date is Sept 1, 2023. [Open Source]