BOJ’s Former Top Female Executive Takes Gender Fight to Schools

After becoming the Bank of Japan’s highest-ranking female bureaucrat ever, Tokiko Shimizu is now turning her focus on how to shatter more glass ceilings with a plan to tackle deep-rooted gender inequality from the bottom up.

While the common path for Japanese bureaucrats after leaving the public sector is to take up a job at a major corporation or think tank, Shimizu, 59, is launching her own consultancy after leaving the BOJ in May to focus on bringing more women into STEM-related fields starting at the high-school level.

“There are huge gaps between Japan and other countries, it’s one of ...