When I took office in 2012, I was determined to promote a society in which all women had a chance to shine. Indeed, Japan cannot truly thrive in the 21st century unless all our citizens reach their fullest potential.

The distance we have to travel to meet that goal is captured in one statistic: Although the percentage of Japanese women completing higher education exceeds that of most other developed countries, their rate of participation in the labor force is low. For those women who joined the workforce, too many had to leave once they got married or had children. What a terrible loss of talent. However, this also means Japan has enormous growth potential, still to be tapped.

I am determined to make Japan a country where opportunities for women abound, and glass ceilings are a thing of the past. Already, the number of working women has grown by more than 800,000 over the past two years, exceeding 27 million as of January. What's more, the number of female executive officers at listed companies has increased by 30 percent since 2012, and now exceeds 800. The question is no longer whether to pursue the advancement of women but what positions and roles they should take on, and how soon.

Clearly, we must do more. For this reason, I set a target to increase the number of women in leadership positions to 30 percent by 2020. I also submitted to the Diet in February a bill that will require companies to devise plans for employing more women and appointing them to management and executive positions.

David Fuller's view

Finally, and well done Shinzo Abe

Whatever the cultural norms, in the 21^st Century only backward countries suppress their women.   The consequences are too often perpetually failing states which cannot compete on an international scale because they lack emotional intelligence.  This cripples social development and suppresses half of the intellectual capability required for economic development and prosperity.