Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe included five women in his second Cabinet earlier this month.

This is because Abe is looking to Japanese women to help him execute his strategy to revitalize the economy.

Governing a country with a shrinking and rapidly aging population, Abe is counting on Japan’s “hidden asset,” millions of highly educated women who are not working.

In Japan, the negative impact of aging on growth is said to be larger than in any other advanced economy. Its decline in labor is judged to subtract about 0.25 percentage points from potential growth each year.

An easy way to help slow this trend would be to increase the participation in the economy of women.

Kathy Matsui, chief Japan strategist at Goldman Sachs, said Japan could boost its GDP by almost 13 percent if it could narrow the gap between the number of men and women in the workplace, which would mean 7 million more workers in the labor pool.

Abe has set numerical targets for his “womenomics” initiatives after his ineffective bids in other fields. He aims to raise the proportion of mothers who return to work after the birth of their first child to 55 percent and have women occupy 30 percent of leadership positions by the year 2020. As of March 2015, the Japanese Government will require listed companies to disclose the number of women in executive positions in their financial reports.

At present, only 38 percent of Japanese mothers return to work after giving birth to their first child.

But unless the workplace is more women-friendly, Abe’s “womenomics” won’t have the desired effect. There is a severe shortage of day-care provisions, which makes it hard for mothers to return to work.

A Goldman Sachs report found that Japanese men spend an average of 59 minutes a day on housework and child care — the shortest amount of time in the developed world.

日本女性能拯救安倍经济学吗？

本月早些时候日本首相安倍晋三第二任内阁中女阁僚人数达到5人。

这是因为安倍晋三期待日本女性可以帮他实行战略，振兴经济。

日本人口萎缩，老化迅速，安倍晋三指望日本的“隐形资产”

（数百万受过良好教育但未进入职场的妇女）可以帮上忙。

据称，日本人口老龄化对经济增长的负面影响在发达经济体中是最大的。

劳动力数量的减少每年大约从潜在增长中扣除了0.25个百分点。

减缓人口老龄化影响的简单办法就是鼓励女性参与经济生活。高盛集团日本首席分析师松井凯西分析，日本若可缩小职场男女人数之间的差距，就可以提振其国内生产总值近13%，这将意味着新增700万工人。

安倍晋三在其他领域努力失败后，开始为他的“女性经济”举措设定量化目标。生完第一个孩子后，部分女性会返回工作岗位，他计划将这部分女性比例提高到55%，2020年之前，计划将担任领导职务妇女的比例提高到30%。截至2015年3月，日本政府将要求上市公司在财报中披露其女性高管人数。

目前，只有38%的女性在第一个孩子出生后继续工作。

但是，若职场环境不利于女性发展，安倍晋三的“女性经济学”

将无法产生预期效果。日本日托机构严重短缺，女性难以重返工作岗位。高盛的一份报告发现，日本男人每天平均花59分钟做家务、照顾孩子 — 在发达国家中时间最短。

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

    【复兴】

    fùxīng

    revitalize

    give new vitality or vigor to

    【披露】

    pīlù

    disclose

    make known, reveal or uncover