Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is one of the challenges the Japanese news industry faces, as the percentage of female journalists is less than 20%, which is much lower compared to the news industry in other markets. If we look at the percentage of women in top editorial positions, it’s only 9%.

Source: Data on top editors at 240 news outlets collected by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Data on female journalists from Worlds of Journalism (2012–2016).

The training, which ran for four sessions, provided participants with the knowledge and skills to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within their organizations. Through a combination of lectures on academic research, workshops on unconscious bias, and design thinking exercises to explore gender equity, participants learned to recognize their own and their organizations' biases, and to develop specific strategies for advancing DEI. The final session featured a panel discussion with women leaders in the newspaper industry and discussed the challenges and opportunities for DEI in the news industry.

18 executives from 9 news organizations who participated in the training gained a deeper understanding of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in their news organizations. Some executives started the discussions on the advancement of diverse employees including how each employee can showcase their leadership skills and build their careers.