Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Marie Gouye. Today, Japan's

decade-long drive to increase its number of female business leaders and managers. Japan must become a place

where women shine. By 2020, we will make 30% of leading positions to be occupied by women.

That was the country's then Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, introducing his policy dubbed

Womenomics at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2014.

But that target hasn't been reached.

If we look at the public sphere, particularly, for example, female representation in the

diet or the parliament, is way behind most countries, even many emerging markets as well.

We'll hear from a woman who has reached the top.

I think it is important for women to have the confidence to become a manager.

And from young Japanese women who are just starting out on their careers.

I don't think there are enough female leaders that I can look up to.

That's all coming up in today's Business Daily.

This was pretty much my life back in 2014 when Shinso Wabe made that pledge to increase the number of women in senior roles.

Knee deep in nappies as the first of our children was born.

Ten years on, we now have three kids, all growing up fast and keeping us very busy.

And with one son and two daughters,

womenomics is a topic very close to my heart. There's a huge gender gap in Japan that Prime Minister Shinsu Abe has set out to narrow. Welcome to talking business with me, Marie Koi.

Within two years of the late Mr. Abbe's speech, the target of female leadership was cut to 7%

for senior government jobs and 15% at companies. The deadline was quietly pushed back to the 2030s.

So what went wrong? The term womenomics was first used in Japan by Kathy Matsui in 1999.

She was a strategist at Goldman Sachs and argued that by getting more women into Japan's shrinking

...