Two years after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made women’s advancement a top policy priority, statistics suggest Japan’s male-dominated workplaces have evolved slightly, but they also highlight the deep-seated societal forces keeping the gender gap alive.

The central government exceeded its 30 percent target for hiring of women for career-track positions, raising the rate to 34 percent this year from 24 percent last year, according to the latest Cabinet Office data. In the private sector, women make up a slightly higher percentage of managers and presidents than they did two years ago, though men still make up more than 90 percent of both categories.

Japan lags behind most other industrial countries in women’s participation and advancement in business, academics and politics. Abe’s “womenomics” policy aims to put more women to work to counter a chronically low birthrate and shrinking workforce, but a business culture in which long hours are routine makes it more difficult for women to get ahead. That’s because women often have not only the bulk of child-care duties, but also the responsibility for providing care for elderly parents.