Japan requires companies to set goals in hiring female execs

TOKYO — Japanese lawmakers have approved a law requiring large companies to set and publicize targets for hiring or promoting women as managers.

The law approved Friday by a vote of 230-1 in the House of Councillors is intended to promote greater gender equality and counter labor shortages that are arising as Japan’s population ages and declines.

The decision coincided with an international conference showcasing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s commitment to increasing the share of women in leadership positions to 30 percent. Japan now lags most other industrial countries in this respect.

The new law does not address a lack of enforcement of already existing requirements for companies to give equal pay for equal work. It also only requires that employers’ targets for women managers be set, not met.