Women need help to save Japan’s economy: IMF

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is ‘working flat out’ to lure more women into the labor force, though current efforts aren’t sufficient to generate the economic growth the country needs, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said.  Abe’s policies to make it easier for women to work could, ‘if implemented aggressively,’ add 0.25 per cent to expansion - - short of the 1 per cent boost needed for his Abenomics stimulus plan ‘to succeed with flying colors,’ Lagarde said at a global forum on women’s leadership in Tokyo. ‘While women can save Japan, they need help from other structural reforms.’  Abe organized the World Assembly for Women to showcase his policies as he seeks to attract more women into the labor pool to offset a shrinking workforce caused by an aging population and one of the world’s lowest birthrates. Abe is aiming to have women in 30 per cent of management positions when Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games in 2020 and has taken steps to expand child care to make it easier for mothers to return to work and to compel companies to reveal the number of women on their boards, according to bloomberg.com