Japanese Government Releases Survey: One-Third of Women in Japan Were Sexually Harassed in the Workplace.

Economists have said for years that Japan needs to make better use of its well-educated but underemployed women. Out of those who responded to the survey, 29 percent said they had suffered sexual harassment. The most common type of harassment was having their appearance or age become the focus of conversation, at 54 percent; this was followed by the next most common type of harassment—unwanted touching at 40 percent. This study did not propose any specific measures for how the situation could be fixed, such as stiffer penalties for harassment or discrimination. The women advancement policy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe encourages some of Japan’s biggest firms to announce targets for boosting the number of female executives in the workforce. The goal of these proposed policies demand that 30% of leadership positions in Japan are held by women by 2020. Read more here.