By Anton Bridge
       TOKYO, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Japan Airlines' incoming president
Mitsuko Tottori joins a sparse cohort of female executives leading Japanese
firms.
    While the number of all-male boards of directors in Japan Inc has fallen
markedly in recent years, few women have been able to work their way up
internally, highlighting the obstacles facing women aspiring to management.
    Out of 1,836 companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's (TSE) "prime"
market, only 15 firms, or less than 1%, were led by women, according to a Kyodo
and Teikoku Databank study as of January 2023. One person has since stepped
down.
    The proportion is higher at 8.3% for all Japanese companies including
unlisted ones, but more than half of these female leaders had inherited a family
business, according to a separate Teikoku Databank study released in November
last year.
    Below are the 14 companies listed on the TSE's "prime" market led by women.
At some firms the top executive is the president, at others it is the chief
executive. Market capitalisation data is from LSEG.
 Company           CEO                Market     Industry
                                      cap (yen)  
 Yushin Precision  Takayo Kotani      24.1 bn    Industrial
 Equipment                                       robotics
 YA-MAN Ltd        Kimiyo Yamazaki    58.3 bn    Beauty goods and
                                                 cosmetics
 Stella Chemifa    Aki Hashimoto      42.7 bn    Chemicals
 Corp                                            processing
 Takemoto Yohki    Emiko Takemoto     9.7 bn     Bottle
                                                 manufacturer
 SUNNY SIDE UP     Etsuko Tsugihara   8.9 bn     Corporate PR
 GROUP                                           
 teno. Holdings    Hiroko Ikeuchi     2.4 bn     Childcare services
 JAC Recruitment   Hiromi Tazaki      112.3 bn   Recruitment
 Trend Micro       Eva Chen           1.2 trn    Cybersecurity
 Poppins Corp      Maiko Todoroki     11.6 bn    Childcare services
 Midac Holdings    Keiko Kato         51.6 bn    Industrial waste
                                                 disposal
 Imuraya Group     Nobuko Nakajima    31.6 bn    Food products
 Hyper Inc         Makiko Mochizuki   2.8 bn     IT services
 CMIC Holdings     Keiko Oishi        50 bn      Pharmaceutical
                                                 development
                                                 support
 SWCC Corporation  Takayo Hasegawa    93.5 bn    Power cables
   
    

    
 (Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by Miyoung Kim)