Japanese banks face ‘gender washing’ spotlight on its managers

Some Japanese banks may soon come under the spotlight for potential “gender washing” over the way they count the number of women in management positions.

The Financial Services Agency found a big discrepancy in responses from a regional bank survey of female managers. One group of lenders reported that women hold less than 10% of management roles, while for another group in the same survey, it was closer to 20%, according to Tatsufumi Shibata, the senior agency official in charge of regional financial institutions.

“I wonder if there is a difference in how they define managers?” he said in an interview.