Setback for Abe as Two Women Resign From Japan's Cabinet

Last year, while addressing the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan declared that his homeland's economic revival depended on harnessing an under-utilized national resource: women. Although highly educated, Japanese women are among the least employed in the developed world; the World Economic Forum's 2013 gender-gap survey rated Japan below Burkina Faso and Cambodia. After a September Cabinet reshuffle, Abe unveiled a lineup studded with five women--unremarkable perhaps by Western standards, yet glass-ceiling-shattering by Japanese ones. But on Oct 20, Abe's Trade and Justice Ministers resigned after being embroiled in political-funding scandals. Both were women; only one was replaced by another woman. Abe's efforts to tap more women helped buny his popularity at a time of slowing economic growth. The fates of his two highest-profile female appointees--Yuko Obuchi as Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry and Midori Matsushima as Minister of Justice mark the first resignations by any Cabinet members since he took office in late 2012.