Takayama Masayuki argues that the WEF Gender Gap Index—celebrated by the Asahi Shimbun as proof of Japan’s “G7-worst” status—is deeply flawed, because it evaluates equality primarily through female political participation. He highlights absurd contradictions: authoritarian Eswatini ranks above Japan despite banning political parties, and Vietnam—whose history was shaped by women—sits at 72nd. Takayama criticizes the Asahi for ignoring such inconsistencies and for using the ranking to disparage Japan rather than to understand genuine gender dynamics.

The following is from this week’s issue of Shukan Shincho, the concluding column written by Masayuki Takayama.
This article again proves that he is the one and only journalist of the postwar world.
It must be read not only by the Japanese people but by people around the world.

A Country Where Women Are Strong
Vietnam has defeated France and the United States, driven out the Khmer Rouge, and even severely punished China, which relies on its Sinocentric hierarchy.
It is indeed a formidable nation that has prevailed against major powers, and during my travels there I learned that all of this was thanks to the women of that country.
The symbolic figure of this is Ms. Nguyen Thi Thi, known as the female manager of “Saigon Satake.”
She also serves as a vice mayor of Ho Chi Minh City, and she is even more famous for another title.
She is called the “Vietcong Lady Marshal.”
The Vietcong refers to the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, which emerged in coordination with North Vietnam.
To demonstrate solidarity with the North, she traversed 1,770 kilometers of battlefield from Saigon to Hanoi and shook hands firmly with Ho Chi Minh.
Her military exploits are countless.
In the American film Full Metal Jacket, there appears a female sniper who terrified U.S. forces.
“That was real,” Thi Thi says.
“Women fought all the wars and won them.”
This is a country where women are strong.
During the wars against the Han Chinese, sisters led armies.
The name “Women’s Army” was born here.
In the anti-French movement, a 13-year-old girl named Vo Thi Sau led the struggle and was eventually executed by firing squad.
Even the men of Vietnam acknowledge this history.
Only in Vietnam is there a “Women’s Museum” that chronicles the history of women who saved the nation.
Yet when the fighting ended, Thi Thi said, “Politics produces nothing,” and she became the leader in rebuilding the economy.
Foolish men created collective farms based on communist doctrine, but in Ho Chi Minh City, under her leadership, free agriculture was permitted and succeeded tremendously.
Incidentally, the model for economic reconstruction was Japan.
With quality and sincerity as the pillars, she manages over 80 enterprises, including “Saigon Satake.”
All the corporate executives are women.
“Men are useless. Let them handle politics if they want.”
The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its ranking of gender gaps—meaning the degree of discrimination against women—in countries around the world.
The judgment criterion is the degree of female political participation.
Because Japan has few female politicians, it ranked 118th out of 146 countries.
The Asahi Shimbun, which rejoices whenever Japan scores poorly, devoted large space to the story and gleefully proclaimed “Japan lowest in the G7,” but it did not address which countries ranked higher or whether the ranking is trustworthy.
Take 47th-ranked Eswatini, for example.
This is the former Swaziland, where the king rules as a dictator.
Political parties and demonstrations are banned, and dissenters are shot.
Women’s political participation is determined by the king, who allots four seats out of 70 in the lower house.
In Japan’s House of Representatives, women occupy 10 percent of the seats, yet Japan ranks far lower.
South Korea is also ranked above Japan, but before the Japanese era, women in that country had no names.
Japanese-style names such as Yoshiko or Yoshie were assigned to them.
Their status at home was low, and even today women are made to eat in the kitchen.
In the United States as well, women were treated as quasi-incompetent, with the husband controlling the wallet and the wife permitted to use only twenty dollars.
That is why Valentine’s Day gifts from wives are always the same sixteen-dollar set of heart-printed underwear and chocolates.
So what about Vietnam—a country whose history could not have been written without women?
It is not ranked first but 72nd, an unjust evaluation.
The WEF ranking uses as its criterion how much women have entered politics, which is a “male profession.”
This itself reflects the narrow vision of men, a bias unnoticed by both the WEF and the Asahi.
One morning in Hanoi, while I was eating pho at the famous morning market, two bicycles collided before my eyes—one carrying a wife on the back, the other also a married couple.
The bicycles crashed spectacularly, the wives were thrown off, and their groceries scattered.
The men got up and immediately began punching each other without saying a word.
Beside them, the wives quietly picked up the fallen items and sorted them, saying, “This must be yours.”
When the task was finished, each wife called out to her husband.
The men stopped fighting as abruptly as they had begun, picked up their bicycles, placed their wives on the back seats, and rode off in opposite directions.
As they parted, the wives exchanged smiles and polite bows.
Thi Thi’s words—“Men are useless, so let them handle politics”—suddenly came to mind.