Japan PM Shinzo Abe boosts women in cabinet

The reshuffle is the first significant rejig since Mr Abe took office in December 2012 after a landslide election win.

Support for his government has since fallen, partly because of the recent rise in consumption tax.

Mr Abe has in the past described women as an “under-used resource” in Japan. Last year he set a goal to increase the percentage of women in leadership positions to 30% by 2020.

Experts also believe that persuading more women to remain in the workforce – either by better accommodating working mothers or by offering better opportunities for promotion in a traditionally male-dominated society – could help ease looming labour shortages caused by Japan’s low birth rate.

In Mr Abe’s previous cabinet, women occupied two of the 18 posts.

Among the new female entrants is Yuko Obuchi, the daughter of former leader Keizo Obuchi, who takes on the economy, trade and industry portfolio, while Midori Matsushima was named justice minister.

What Mr Abe has done is a significant step but the appointments mask a much deeper problem in Japanese society, says the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo.

Currently only 39 of the 480 MPs in Japan’s lower house of parliament are women, the lowest by far of any developed country, our correspondent adds.

In a parallel reshuffle, two lawmakers with good links to China, Sadakazu Tanigaki and Toshihiro Nikai, were appointed to top ruling party posts.