Japan was the host country of the G20 in 2019. W20 prepared the agenda on women for the G20 leaders to discuss. What are the issues? How much have we progressed? What do we need to keep an eye on? Let’s learn about and discuss how we can support W20’s work. W20 committee members will share their experiences and views.

The W20 and Beyond Roundtable discussion was facilitated by Janelle Sasaki, EY Japan’s director of Gender Brand, Marketing and Communications. Ms. Sasaki shared the stage with Michiko Achilles, a senior advisor in HR Strategy at SAP Japan, and Renge Jibu, journalist and visiting researcher from Showa Women’s University. The panelists have been W20 committee members, bringing the insider views that made this roundtable so engaging and enlightening. Before bringing the discussion to the panelists, Ms. Sasaki addressed the four enablers of women’s economic empowerment, defining each enabler for further discussion later on with her fellow panelists.

Ms. Sasaki asked the panelists to share their roles on the W20 committee as well as how their previous experiences prepared them for this effort. Ms. Achilles served as a delegate and as a committee member, and led the Labor Equality communiqué creation with her 30 years of HR experience in global and Japanese companies. Ms. Jibu held two roles in W20 and found she was able to contribute through her skills as a journalist. They also shared their challenges in preparing the W20 Communiqué. Considering the variety of W20’s members and their career backgrounds, Ms. Achilles discussed the challenge of consolidating the different approaches of G20 countries to reach a common goal, and gave some wonderful advice on how to best communicate in such a diverse environment. Ms. Jibu similarly shared tips on dealing with such a diverse group of people and one particularly important piece of advice on how to maximize efficiency in such a setting.

Ms. Sasaki’s next question was about how public and private sectors can work in harmony to encourage a commitment to gender equality. Ms. Achilles also serves as a Special Advisor for gender equality at the City of Yokohama and shared her personal experience with successful policymaking. Governance was a hot topic in this particular roundtable, with the panelists bringing forward insightful information, knowledge and advice on how to actively close the gender gap and encourage societal change. Simply put, Ms. Jibu encouraged people to adopt these changes “at home, at school, and at work.” The discussion moved on to social inclusivity, where Ms. Jibu had several great points to make on how to make W20 efforts more inclusive and accessible for all women. In making this point, she addressed W20’s campaign to reach out to women living in less urbanized parts of Japan, and how crucial this was to bringing everyone’s voice to the table. Lastly, Ms. Achilles and Ms. Jibu gave advice on how the audience can scale up and support W20 further.