Imagine our current discussions about women and the workplace — Can women have it all? How do women lean in? — taking place in a country with one of the worst gender-equality ratios in the world.
This is Japan. And women, it turns out, could be key to jolting the nation out of its economic coma.
Japan's population is shrinking faster than anywhere else in the world. The government estimates the population will fall by roughly 15 percent, or 20 million people, by 2040. With this steep drop, the tax base and labor force will plummet, all while state spending on the elderly rises, creating a long-term economic crisis.
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