INTERVIEW: Philippine Envoy Encouraged by Women’s Greater Roles in Japan

By Yuka Moriyama Tokyo, July 5 (Jiji Press)–Philippine Ambassador to Japan Mylene J. Garcia-Albano has said she is “very encouraged” to see women assuming greater responsibilities in Japan, while expressing her willingness to share lessons from her own country’s “long history” of promoting gender equality. “Seeing Prime Minister (Sanae) Takaichi actually elected to head the government was very encouraging and amazing,” Garcia-Albano said in an interview with Jiji Press on Thursday, speaking of Takaichi becoming Japan’s first female prime minister in October last year. “I think she’s wonderful.” “We are very encouraged that it’s turning out that women are getting a larger role…not just in government, but in business as well,” she said. The first woman to serve as the Philippines’ ambassador to Japan, Garcia-Albano noted that several other countries have also appointed their first female envoys to Japan in recent years. “The female ambassador corps in Japan is also growing,” she said. “We are looking forward to more women’s participation, even in the diplomatic community.” The Philippines, which elected its first female president four decades ago, ranked 20th out of 148 economies in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, placing third in East Asia and the Pacific, behind New Zealand and Australia. Japan, by contrast, ranked 118th overall. “The success in our efforts, I believe, had to do with the enactment of legislation that has put in place programs and projects that clearly support women’s empowerment,” Garcia-Albano said, citing the Magna Carta of Women, enacted in 2009, as a key example. She also highlighted the Gender and Development, or GAD, initiatives mandated by the law, under which all government departments and agencies are required to allocate at least 5 pct of their annual budgets to GAD programs. The ambassador said she is looking forward to new opportunities to work with the Japanese government on issues affecting women. She also expressed hope that interactions between Philippine and Japanese lawmakers will be “another avenue” by which the two countries can share “legislative measures that the Philippines has benefited from and have been helpful in women development issues.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]