London, Sept. 16 (Jiji Press)–Japan ranked 117th among 145 countries in the World Economic Forum’s global gender equality rankings for 2026, the lowest among the Group of Seven major democracies, a WEF report showed Wednesday. Japan’s ranking improved by one spot from 2025 with a score of 0.670, up from 0.666 in the previous year, where 1 indicates full gender parity. The WEF’s gender gap index measures the degree of gender equality in the four areas of politics, economy, education and health. In the category of political empowerment, Japan’s score improved by 0.02 to 0.105. The score, which reflects the proportion of women in parliament and ministerial positions, as well as the tenures of female heads of government, increased after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office last October. Meanwhile, Japan’s score in the economic participation and opportunity category, which considers female participation in the workforce and wage disparity, fell to 0.609 from 0.613 in 2025. Iceland topped the global ranking for the 17th straight year, followed by Finland and Norway. Namibia raised its standing by four spots to rank fourth. The top three countries remained unchanged from last year. “Women now reach senior leadership in business and government…yet remain largely underrepresented in roles that carry the greatest economic and political influence,” the WEF said. In artificial intelligence, women account for fewer than one in five engineers and are “underrepresented at every level in AI firms,” it added. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
