TOKYO: Japanese digital transformation minister Takuya Hirai said he thinks a woman should head an envisaged government agency tasked with playing a central role in promoting the digitalization of Japanese society.

“In the digital world, meetings held overseas are dominated by women,” Hirai said on a satellite television program by Nippon Television Network Corp. on Monday evening. “At digital-related meetings in Japan, all I see are men in black.”

The minister also said in the TV program that he will head a preparatory office for creating the proposed digital agency that will be set up at the Cabinet Secretariat as early as Wednesday. The office will be composed of some 60 members, including about 10 people from the private sector and around 50 officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and other related government agencies.

Establishing the digital agency is one of key policy goals of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who took office on Sept. 16.

JIJI Press