Japan’s Regional Banks Lack Pipeline for Women on Boards (1)

Japan’s male-dominated regional banks are electing more women to their boards of directors, but they still lag behind the country’s largest banks and other industries on gender diversity. Observers say a limited pipeline of candidates with management experience is partly to blame.

Sawako Yoshioka is among the few women who are veteran managers at Japan’s regional banks. She’s worked at San-In Godo Bank Ltd.—based in Matsue, the capital city of Shimane Prefecture, Japan—for more than 30 years. Now she’s the second woman with representative rights appointed to a board of directors among Japan’s 77 publicly traded regional banks. Representative directors ...