Gender Equality Perception Gap Found in Japan News Industry

Tokyo, April 23 (Jiji Press)–There is a wide gender gap in perceptions of workplace equality among male and female workers at newspapers and press agencies, a survey by the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association showed Thursday. The survey “highlights challenges facing the industry and calls for change among workers,” said the association, or Nihon Shinbun Kyokai. The online survey was conducted in November and December 2025. This is the first large-scale survey on the subject in the newspaper industry. It covered about 36,000 employees or executives of member companies of the association. Valid responses came from 9,630 people, including 6,823 who identified as men and 2,755 as women. In the survey, the proportion of respondents who said that men and women had equal status in their workplaces stood at 40.7 pct among male respondents, compared with 26.0 pct among female respondents. When asked about situations in which they feel inequality, many respondents said that men are more likely to be appointed to managerial positions and that their opinions are more strongly reflected in editorial decisions. The survey also showed that 55.6 pct of respondents supported setting numerical targets for the share of women in managerial positions. Over half said they believed that the newspaper industry is lagging behind the rest of the world, as the proportion of female executives in the sector stood at just 5.7 pct as of last April. Many respondents called for reform in an open-ended question, the association said. “We will further accelerate discussions and efforts to provide a more comfortable working environment,” Shiro Nakamura, head of the association and chairman of major Japanese newspaper publisher Asahi Shimbun Co., said in a statement. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]