Senior jobs and high pay typically go hand in hand. But in Japan, experts say too many women are an exception to the rule. So they've proposed a series of measures to turn the situation around.

A draft report released last week by a labor ministry panel shows women earn about 70 percent of what men do. The experts say the gender pay gap could be narrowed by requiring companies of a certain size to disclose the ratio of females in managerial posts.

A 2022 survey shows women accounted for just 13 percent of Japan's managerial positions. That's far behind other nations such as Sweden, at 41.7 percent; the United States, at 41 percent; Singapore, at 40.3 percent; and France, at 39.9 percent.

The panel also proposes mandating companies with a workforce of more than 100 to disclose their gender wage disparities. The rule currently applies to firms with more than 300 employees.

The labor ministry plans to debate the issue further and submit any relevant bills to the Diet in 2025.