Big Tech is walking away from DEI: what it means for Japan

In recent years, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs became a major trend at global companies. Now some GAFAM companies are scaling them back or rethinking them. [1] [2] Behind this shift are political changes and economic conditions in the United States. But what does it mean for Japan?

In this piece, I’ll revisit the basics of what DEI means, then think through what the change at GAFAM signifies and the challenges Japan faces.

What is DEI?

DEI refers to the ideas and policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. It developed above all in the United States.

The US has long struggled with racial and gender discrimination. At the same time, it has drawn on the diversity of a multicultural society to boost its vitality and build one of the strongest economies in the world. That is why, in the US, DEI came to be seen as part of a strategy for sustaining economic growth.

Its roots go back to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the legal reforms that followed. Then, in 2020, George Floyd died while being restrained by police. His death energized the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which spread around the world. Calls to “correct racial discrimination” were aimed at companies and universities too, interest in DEI grew, and efforts to put it into practice were stepped up. [3]

Corporate DEI efforts included the following, and big tech companies such as GAFAM pushed them hard. For companies, these measures also served as a way to attract top talent.

• Setting up dedicated DEI departments, such as a Chief Diversity Officer
• Diversifying hiring (especially promoting women and minorities into management)
• Expanding education and training (unconscious bias training, support programs for minorities)
• Creating a better working environment (facilities for people with disabilities, gender-inclusive restrooms, flextime)
• Building DEI into performance reviews

Why GAFAM is scaling back DEI

In 2025, however, some GAFAM companies began rapidly scaling back or rethinking their DEI programs. Several factors seem to be behind this.

1. Accusations of reverse discrimination, and the ruling against affirmative action DEI efforts had long been criticized for “creating reverse discrimination.” In 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, which had been part of affirmative action, the policy you could call DEI’s forerunner. [4] After that ruling, companies began to reassess their own DEI programs as carrying legal risk.

2. A shift toward cutting costs and putting profits first GAFAM has kept growing strongly in recent years. At the same time, soaring share prices have brought more pressure from investors to improve profitability, and spending on AI keeps rising, so the companies have been reworking their cost structures. As a result, more of them have lowered the priority of DEI programs, which are seen as hard to tie directly to short-term profits.

3. A changing hiring market (from candidates’ market to employers’ market) When COVID-19 sent demand for digital services soaring, GAFAM fought fierce battles for talent, and DEI was one of their strategies for securing top people. From 2022 on, though, many companies cut staff, and the hiring market flipped from a candidates’ market to an employers’ market. “Securing diverse talent” slipped down the list of corporate priorities, and DEI became relatively less important.

4. “Political correctness fatigue” and a backlash against diversity In recent years, film and advertising have put more and more emphasis on diversity. At the same time, more people are asking whether it is all surface-level, with no real change underneath. Some people also see it as “political correctness being forced on them,” and the backlash against pushing DEI too far has grown. This mood has also fed into companies’ reviews of their DEI programs.

5. A shift in US politics And the final blow, you might say, was President Trump taking office. Conservatives have gained influence, and Trump himself is openly critical of DEI. In response, many companies, GAFAM included, have become more conscious of appearing politically neutral, and the move to rethink DEI programs has gathered pace.

Within GAFAM, though, Apple is the exception: it has declared that it will continue its DEI efforts. [5] One reason may be that CEO Tim Cook is himself a member of the LGBTQ community. [6]

DEI at Japanese companies: challenges and the current state

In Japan, the “racial diversity” part of DEI probably doesn’t get much attention. Japan has historically often been seen as an “ethnically homogeneous nation,” and compared with other countries its racial diversity really is limited, so policies built on the premise of racial diversity, as in the US, have a hard time taking root. Seen through a DEI lens, though, Japanese companies face plenty of diversity challenges beyond race:

• The gender gap (raising the share of women in management)
• Making workplaces work for single mothers
• Expanding job opportunities for people with disabilities
• Protecting LGBTQ+ rights and improving the workplace for LGBTQ+ people
• Better treatment for non-regular workers (part-time, contract and temporary staff)
• Accepting foreign workers and helping them settle into the workplace
• Ending age discrimination in employment (making use of older workers, rethinking mandatory retirement ages)
• Abolishing the gakureki filter (screening job applicants by which university they attended), and accepting more varied career paths

As interest in DEI has grown, Japanese companies have also taken some steps, [7] [8] but they have not yet changed the underlying structure of society.

The impact of the DEI pullback and what comes next

Is GAFAM’s pullback from DEI a passing trend or a long-term change? At the very least, this move is not a turn toward “tolerating discrimination.” It is better seen as a correction after a kind of “fatigue from overdone programs.” For now, politics and the economy are having a big influence, and where things go from here will depend on how investors and the market react.

What matters most for Japan is not getting caught up in “DEI” as a buzzword, but actually advancing diversity and inclusion. With a shrinking workforce unavoidable, problems such as rethinking mandatory retirement ages, accepting foreign workers, women’s slow progress in the workplace, and the gap faced by non-regular workers all remain unsolved. Unless these are solved, Japan cannot avoid a decline in economic growth and international competitiveness.

For companies and society to keep growing, what’s needed is real reform, not “DEI on paper.” Rather than being swung around by trends in the US, Japan needs to look for its own way of making the most of diversity.

…When we think about the importance of diversity, making the most of older people is an important theme too. By the way, it’s not unusual for an owl to live more than 30 years.

References

[1] CNBC: Read the memo: Meta announces end of its DEI programs

[2] Business Insider Japan: Google’s internal memo on DEI (in Japanese)

[3] Wikipedia: Diversity, equity, and inclusion

[4] CNBC: Supreme Court rejects affirmative action at colleges, says schools can’t consider race in admission

[5] Bloomberg: Apple and DEI, February 25, 2025 (in Japanese)

[6] HuffPost Japan: Tim Cook and the LGBTQ community (in Japanese)

[7] Fujitsu: Diversity (in Japanese)

[8] Toshiba Digital Solutions: Diversity initiatives (in Japanese)