Sanae Takaichi is the first female prime minister of Japan.Credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty
Japan struggles with gender equity. It ranked 118th out of 148 countries in the 2025 Global Gender Gap Index. Against this backdrop, the election of a woman, Sanae Takaichi, as Japan’s prime minister on 21 October is a milestone.
But will her rise to the nation’s highest office serve as a catalyst for changing social attitudes? As a woman and a neuroscientist, I have been involved in large surveys on gender equality in Japanese academia, and I feel conflicted.
There is hope. Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), have released an agreement that pledges to “substantially expand” grants for scientific research and to “establish a system granting legal effect to the use of maiden names”. Both are promising for researchers, but the future of Japanese science will depend on how these policies are implemented.
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Recent changes in party stances, which might shape the direction of Japan’s science and innovation policy, give cause for concern. The LDP’s former coalition partner, Komeito, has advocated for increasing stable base funding for universities and supporting women and early-career researchers. By contrast, the JIP prioritizes market-driven innovation, administrative efficiency and economic growth. Although science and technology promotion is included in its agenda, it has yet to articulate proposals for reforming research environments.
One issue for women in academia is surnames. Japan is currently the only country that legally requires married couples to share the same family name — a system that Takaichi, a conservative, has defended. The naming law makes it difficult for women to maintain consistent publication records and professional identities. And it is a human-rights issue: the right to choose one’s own name.
Takaichi has reportedly instructed the justice minister to review and expand the system for using maiden names alongside married names. This would help, but practical and legal challenges would remain. Having two surnames — one for the family register and one for everyday use — can create administrative confusion, domestically and abroad. I urge the government to adopt a more straightforward solution, such as allowing married couples to have separate surnames.
Beyond this policy, addressing gender inequality is an urgent priority. According to a survey conducted in 2021 by the Japan Inter-Society Liaison Association Committee for Promoting Equal Participation of Men and Women in Science and Engineering, female researchers in Japan are promoted five to ten years later than their male counterparts, regardless of whether they have children (see go.nature.com/47rvdns). And the instability of the employment system is a major issue. Fixed-term research positions are prevalent, for postdoctoral fellows and faculty members. At an increasing number of universities, even full professors are not permanently employed. Longer contracts and tenure-track programmes are needed.
Equity in science is a beautiful lie — and I’m done pretending
