Waffle
Close the gender gap byempowering and educating womenin the technology field.

2022
ANNUAL REPORTThank you all very much for your continued support!

2022 was a year of new challenges for Waﬄe. For some time now, Waﬄe has been organizing
events such as Waﬄe Camp, a one-day course aimed at junior and high school students to help
them take their ﬁrst steps in the ﬁeld of programming, and support programs aimed at helping
domestic participants prepare for the global app development competition Technovation Girls.

In 2022, we also launched Waﬄe College, a program aimed at undergraduate and graduate school
students, to help expand career options in IT to a wider age group. At Waﬄe College, participantslearned to code from scratch and began eﬀorts aimed at obtaining internships at IT companies. The
potential demonstrated by the students has been amazing to see, and their rapid progress makes it
diﬃcult to believe that they had all started with no programming experience, but over half of them
have gone on to or plan to independently participate in external hackathons.

For the Waﬄe Festival, in its second year, we organized sessions aimed at communicating that it isnever too late to take up IT, and that one does not have to be good at math to do it. The sessions
were designed to let participants become more comfortable with IT and learn to view it as essential
for problem-solving.

In addition to organizing the aforementioned programs, Waﬄe put a lot of eﬀort into policy proposals and communication with the outside world in 2022. We met with oﬃcials from the Cabinet
Oﬃce and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) several times, and spoke at theWorld Assembly for Women (WAW!) about womens education in digital/STEM ﬁelds. This gave us

an opportunity to communicate the importance of STEM education for girls and non-binary people,
as well as the importance of expanding the types of role models and educational opportunities
both at home and abroad.

In the process of engaging in these activities, Waﬄe has been able to increase its membership,including interns and pro bono staﬀ, to over 30. We will continue to work on strengthening ourteam and strive to create an even greater impact.

Waﬄe is able to continue its activities because of the regular support it receives from companies,
partner organizations, and individual donors. We hope that you will continue to partner with us in
our ﬁght to eliminate the gender gap in IT and solve problems.

NPO Waﬄe

1

VISION
Close the gender gap by empowering andeducating women in the technology ﬁeld.
Topic: STEM Gender Gap as Revealed by the Data
Only 3.4% of female Japanese students answered "yes" to the question

Only 16% of students in Japanese engineering"Do you want to pursue a career in science or engineering? "departments are female

30%

50%
40%

20%

30%

Only

3.4%

10%

0%

Only

16%

20%
10%
0%

Science and technology carry signiﬁcant risks in theabsence of women and gender minorities among developers. For example, until the beginning of the 21st century, only standard dummies (with male body types) wereused in crash tests. There have also been cases ofprescription drugs that had been tested only on men andwere subsequently found to have serious side eﬀects inwomen, resulting in a revocation of approval. With theincreased presence of women and non-binary people
among developers, the discrimination and male-centric
design traditionally embedded in technology will bequestioned, thereby leading to greater gender inclusion.

Japan

Towards technology that is inclusive of many genders

Canadasidering the framework itself.

Germany

awareness of a gender-based division of roles), but recon-

Englandplace and eliminating stereotypes (choices based on an

Francetion of increasing women s participation in the work-

Italy

IT is an important social issue as well. It is not just a ques-

SwedenIncreasing the number of women and gender minorities inCzech Republic

nese girls' interests or career paths in the ﬁrst place.

Greecematter is that IT and STEM ﬁelds are not linked to Japa-

Costa Ricaing engineering departments in the OECD, the fact of the

PolandJapan

Czech Republic

Columbia

USA

PolandGermany

Italy

CanadaFranceEnglandSwedenGreeceArgentina

Costa Rica

Not only has Japan the lowest percentage of girls enter-

Toward the realization of a gender-equal societyWith dramatic improvements in AI and robot technology,
the IT industry is poised to become indispensable forsociety going forward. Increasing the number of womenand non-binary people in IT is a signiﬁcant step toward
the realization of a gender-equal society. Sadly, despite
the fact that the math and science skills of Japanese girls
are among the best in the world, their abilities are notbeing fully utilized. High-potential women and genderminorities aiming for careers in IT can help alleviate theshortage of IT human resources in Japan, which is becoming more and more serious by the year.

Waﬄe's approach
As a grassroots movement, Waﬄe provides educational
opportunities to junior high and high school students,
university students, and graduate school students acrossthe country, and also actively works to bring aboutchanges in the social structure through policy recommendations.
In our education business, we are working to send as
many girls and gender minorities as possible into the IT
industry. On the other hand, at international conferences
and in discussions with relevant ministries and agencies,
we share our awareness of issues by introducing Waﬄe's
business and continue to make recommendations on

1 https://genderedinnovations-ochanomizu-univ.jp/Case-studies/crash.html#tabs-1
2 https://genderedinnovations-ochanomizu-univ.jp/Case-studies/drugs.html#tabs-2
3 https://data.oecd.org/pisa/mathematics-performance-pisa.htm

what can be done to nurture female researchers andwomen in science and engineering ﬁelds.

4 https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/economy/daiyoji_sangyo_skill/pdf/001_s02_00.pdf

2

Wafﬂeʼs Four Steps to Increase the Presence of Women in Tech

Step1

Step2

Become aware of IT

Become interested in IT

In response to the question "What do

Genderyou want to be when you grow up," 7.4%

majors are strong, and many girls andof middle school boys and 9.7% of highnon-binary junior high and high school

schoolstudents feel that IT has nothing to do

boys

answered"IT

engineer/

programmer," while the number wasstereotypes

aboutsciencewith them.

3.8% for junior high school girls and amere 3.5% for high school girls.

At Waﬄe, we oﬀer programs on using IT
to develop apps to solve social issues or

At Waﬄe, we are cultivating a positive

create websites to express your interests.

image of IT through books and social

We also organize career talks by current-

media to make people aware of IT as aly working IT engineers, who serve as

career option. We also disseminate infor-

role models, thereby creating opportuni-

mation to help a diverse range ofties to arouse greater interest in IT.

students perceive IT as a part of theirown lives.

Wafﬂe Festival
I am interested in IT, but I always thought the sciences
weren't suitable for girls and would not be suitable for meeither. However, after attending career talks by womenengineers from various backgrounds and learning about
corporate eﬀorts to close the gender gap, I have begun tothink that I can do anything I put my mind to. There are anumber of role models and people willing to oﬀer
support, and I feel we can rely on them. So, what are we
waiting for!

Junior high and high school students

1
3※1 Results of the 34th What I want to be when I grow up
survey by the Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited, 16 March, 2023

Wafﬂe Camp

Technovation GirlsI tried programming for the ﬁrst time at Waﬄe Camp.
I wasn t sure I would really be able to write code
within such a short period of time, but with careful
guidance from the instructors and mentors, I
thoroughly enjoyed learning to code.
One can create an original website from scratch, andI was able to do it myself, which gave me great conﬁdence.
Having personally experienced programming, I am
now eager to learn to do more things with the powerof programming.

Step ３

Step ４

Incorporate IT into your career path

Turn your interest into a career

There is a conﬁdence barrier between

There are students who, having alreadybeing interested in IT and choosing it as aentered non-STEM majors, become inter-

career. For students who are interested

ested in a career in IT, but as of the pres-in IT, but unsure whether they can keep

ent time, such students do not haveup with mathematics or do well in

suﬃcient learning opportunities or accessscience and engineering, where there areto career support.

few girls, Waﬄe oﬀers a community ofpeers and mentors who support them

At Waﬄe, we oﬀer educational programs

and help them choose career paths.

for these female and non-binary students
to help them take the ﬁrst step toward

We

also

have

programs

that

oﬀer

building a career in IT.

hands-on experience in writing code anddeveloping products, which gives participants a strong sense of conﬁdence, leading many to choose a career in IT with apositive attitude of wanting to continue
in this ﬁeld.

Wafﬂe College
We took on the challenge of developing an app as a team.
We also had to present our product in English at the pitch
event! We did stumble a few times, but team development
is more fun than doing it alone because of the communication aspect and the wider range of ideas and technologies
you have access to.
In addition to acquiring the skills necessary for app development, I was also able to improve my English andcommunication skills, which will come in handy in any
ﬁeld. What is more, I was able to connect with people myown age, and now we re good friends who can help
motivate each other.

University students

I joined Waﬄe College with the aim of getting atechnical internship at an IT company while studying at university.
Together with other students from across the country, I studied programming from scratch. As during
the Technovation Girls program, I have made somewonderful friends.
Over the summer holidays, I participated in Waﬄe
Camp as a mentor. I was deeply moved to be able
to participate as a teacher in a program thatstarted me oﬀ on this journey.
I am happy to report that, having completed theteam-based app development and internshippreparation program, I have successfully won aninternship opportunity! Now, I am looking forward
to working in the workplace of my dreams!

4

Wafﬂe Festival
Expand your wings, girls!
Aiming for an IT industry
welcoming of everybody!

Objectives
For students: To create an opportunity for students to take thenext step
By getting women working in the IT industry to speak, we hope
to inspire the next generation of female and non-binary students
to consider the option of becoming tech leaders*Tech leaders: At Waﬄe, we deﬁne tech leaders as those who use technology to leadthe way in solving the world s problems

Date and time: 16-17 December, 2022
Format: Online
Target: Anyone interested in IT
No. of participants: 315 people overthe course of 2 days

Program (partial)▪Keynote addresses by Sputniko!, Tokushima
Mayor Sawako Naito, and Grace Choi fromthe American Embassy▪A future created by business combined withsocial impact▪

An encouragement of IT‒ from liberalarts to a career in IT▪Career consultation talk with university
students

For working adults: To promote an understanding of the importance of IT education for girls and non-binary people andprovide practical examples and advice for companies to takeconcrete action

Overview
We held nine sessions based on the theme of eliminating thegender gap in IT, which is Waﬄe's mission. For example, there
was a session on the state of DE&I promotion in companies;
there was also a career session introducing women who work in
the IT industry to serve as role models.
To attract a more diverse group of participants than the previous
year, we organized separate tracks for students and working
adults.

Satisfaction level/percentage of students
who were able to become interested in a career in IT

80%
80% of the students who responded to the questionnaire survey
chose one of the following:
I now feel I should consider avariety of career options,
I have become interested in
IT-related careers too,'' andI have become interested in
IT-related careers in various industries.'' Many respondents alsocommented that their perception regarding pursuing a career in
IT had changed.
There were many role models who aroused my interest andmade me think that I could also be a programmer or web
designer. (Junior high school student)
I now realize that it would be a shame to limit myself in terms of
future options just because I am not good at science. My ﬁrst
step now is to start taking my math classes more seriously. (Highschool student)
I learned that, despite my liberal arts background, I can still geta job at a company that requires programming or similar skills.
The idea of learning on the job is very inspiring to me. (Working
adult)

5

Waﬂle Camp
Express your interests
through coding!

Objectives• To create opportunities to help those who are interested inprogramming but don t know where to begin take the ﬁrst
step
• To heighten interest in programming

Program schedule:
1-day or 2-day events, held year-round,especially during long school holidays• To heighten interest in the sciences• To boost the conﬁdence of Waﬄe College participants, whodeliver career talks and serve as role models and mentors

Locations:
Sapporo City, Toshima Ward (Tokyo),
Yokohama City, Shizuoka City,
Fukui Prefecture, Mie Prefecture,

Program evaluation

Oita Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture,
Kamiina Wide Area Union (Nagano Prefecture)(Held from summer 2022 through spring 2023)

Target:Female and non-binary junior high andhigh school students interested in IT

103
Number of participants※

42 junior high school students,
61 high school students

63%

increase in number ofparticipants interested
in science andengineering career paths

Program details▪Instructing ﬁrst-time coders using Waﬄe's
own teaching materials

It was my ﬁrst time programming and I found it diﬃcult, but I
had fun with it. (Participant)▪Organizing career talks by working
engineers exclusively for participants, whereparticipants can hear from women working

I did not think I could program, but I managed to do it, and it
was a lot of fun. (Participant)at the forefront of the industry and ask
them questions directly▪Training Waﬄe College participants tobecome mentors and more approachable

The mentor s instructions were very easy to understand andhelped me learn to program smoothly! (Participant)role models for junior high and high school
students

It was very rewarding to witness the excitement of junior highand high school students when they realized they could do it.
(Mentor, Waﬄe College student)

6Technovation Girls
Develop an app and

To improve participating students
conﬁdence in three areas:
computer science, business leadership, and entrepreneurshipchange the world!

Program evaluation

33

No. of teams

Program period:
December 26, 2021 - May 8, 2022
Target:Female and non-binary junior high andhigh school students
No. of participants:
120 students across 33 teams
Target:Anyone interested in IT

120

No. of participants

81%

60%

increase in interest improvement in innovation/in programming
problem-solving skills

Entrepreneur boot campTeams explored the social issues they would like to tackle,
designed interviews with personas, and created businessmodels. On the ﬁnal day, each team created a pitch video andcommercial for its product. The goal of this bootcamp was not
to create a perfect business model in three days. It was to give
participants the ability to change direction or even to start
afresh without hesitation if necessary when faced with obstacles
during the course of the project over the following threemonths.

App development bootcamp
We have put together Japanese-language teaching materials inline with the core lessons proposed in the oﬃcial Technovation
Girls curriculum. Our materials follow a consistent theme andstructure and comprise 12 lessons to teach app development.
Software engineers working at IT companies volunteered asteaching assistants (TAs), and students spent two weeks learning not just programming, but also about the world of IT byinteracting with these engineers.

Japan Region Pitch Event (May 8, 2022, sponsored by Waﬄe)

I participated because I was interested in learning how to develop
apps, but I also learned a great
deal about the business side ofthings, in terms of how to commercialize and make a proﬁt from an
app after developing it. This wasmuch more than I had expected,
and I hope to make good use ofthis knowledge in the future.

7

Although I was interested in programming, I didn't know what to
do or how to start. Participating inthis program taught me how toapproach programming and otherbasics. Also, thanks to thepatience and kindness of theteachers, I was able to successfullycomplete all the tasks. The experience helped me gain conﬁdence. I
am really glad I participated.

A total of 30 teams participated in the Japan oﬃcial pitch event.
Brilliant projects that were diﬃcult to believe had been completed in just three months were presented one after another. The
event was so exciting that one forgot it was being held online.
Some parts of the event were open to the public and attracted
viewers from the media and general public in addition to those
involved. This made it a great opportunity to reveal the fullpotential of female and non-binary junior high and high school
students to audiences across the country.

Unmute by scholatibe（team6）
This app allows students to post their opinions about various
aspects of school life, such as school rules, events, and facilities,
and share those opinions with teachers. The app is designed tohelp create an equal relationship between students and theschool.

*The Technovation Girls Japan oﬃcial pitch event is independently sponsored by
Waﬄe, the program s oﬃcial domestic ambassador. This event is held separatelyfrom the Technovation Girls global competition.

Waﬂle College
A community of female andgender minority undergraduate
and graduate school students
from across the country aiming
for careers in tech

Program period：First semester: April 2022 to July 2022
Second semester: October 2022 to March 2023
Format：Online classes, with oﬀ-line meetings in
the summer and spring
Target：Female and non-binary undergraduate,
graduate school, junior college, andvocational school students(both domestic and international)
No. of students who completed the ﬁrst semester：79 (completion rate 99%)
No. of students who completed the second semester：27 (completion rate 90%)
Many students also participated in/applied for summer internships

Program calendar
April-May: First semester lectures/career event
June: Waﬄe Camp mentor seminar
July: First semester oﬄine meeting (Tokyo & Osaka)July-August: Waﬄe College students volunteer as
mentors in Waﬄe Camp
August: Second semester student selection/result
announcement

Objectives
To teach students programming and tell them about a variety ofcareers, which could lead to them ﬁnding careers in IT.

Overview
Students have the exciting opportunity to make friends from allover Japan. The program creates a community of students whowant to change society through technology, spread their wings
to ﬁnd an IT career abroad, or ﬁnd friends to study together
with.
Students can debut as recognized Waﬄe Camp mentors after
completing the ﬁrst semester. After completing the second
semester, they can seek to obtain a technical internship at an IT
company.

Background
Most countries have a variety of programs to train people with
non-IT backgrounds as engineers in order to increase thenumber of IT engineers. Waﬄe College aims to do the same forJapan by creating a path for training women outside of engineering departments as engineers to help increase the number offemale IT engineers in Japan, where only 16% of engineering
students are female.

Program evaluation

80

Number ofparticipating ※1
students

1.9 3.2 20% 83%
increase inprogramming ※2
conﬁdence（rating on a 5-point scale）

increase in desire
to apply for ※3
a technical position
or internship※1 Percentage of students not majoring in computer science: 100%
※2 79% of students reported gaining conﬁdence in their coding abilities※3 67 students responded to the survey

Initially, despite the high level of interest in technology, only 20%
of students planned to apply for technical jobs or internships.
After completing the program, 83% of students responding to
the survey said they had applied for/planned to apply for internships in technical (or non-technical) positions.
56% of students had participated/planned to participate in a
hackathon.
91% of students had created their own lesson plans to learn
programming.

October: Second semester lectures begin
November: Second semester oﬄine meeting (Tokyo& Osaka)Despite having no prior experience in programming, I gained
conﬁdence in myself by being able to program using HTML andThunkable. It was a great environment where I could ask for andalways receive help from those around me if there was something I
did not understand. (First semester participant)I really liked that we could all grow together, rather than competing or trying to pull each other down. It was a really comfortableenvironment for me. I was also very grateful to my mentor for kindly
listening to my problems and patiently guiding me.
(First half
participant)8

Advocacy
Waﬄe's activities related to advocacy
Waﬄe activities and related developments
February 15, 2022

Recommendations to the Cabinet Oﬃce Expert Examination Committee on
Gender Equality Plan Implementation and Monitoring

October 2021 - March 2022

Sayaka Tanaka participates as an expert in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's
Study Group on Support for Digital-Related Club Activities

May 2022 - December 2022

Waﬄe is selected for and participates in the ﬁrst batch of "Hiroki Komazaki's Policy Entrepreneurship Dojo"

June 2022

Inclusion of promoting learning and ﬁeld selection in science and engineering,
including IT ﬁelds for female junior and senior high school students
in the Basic Policy for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2022

September 16, 2022

Visits to Harvey Mudd College, Tufts University, etc.
in the United States to learn about better practices aimed at female students

October 8, 2022

Speech at the 20th Japan Inter-Society Liaison Association Committee for
Promoting Equal Participation of Men and Women in Science and Engineering Symposium

December 3, 2022

Presentation at Session 3: Women and Digital/STEM Education of World Assembly for Women: WAW! 2022

Our recommendations
Strengthening the incorporation of gender perspectives into
IT education for junior high and high school students
Current status
The budget allocated for supporting female junior high andhigh school students in the government's HRD projects related
to science and engineering remained low.
Gender biases among parents and teachers and theoverwhelming male domination of university engineering
departments and programming schools also have an impact
on female students' career choices.

Waﬄe's recommendations
In light of this situation, Waﬄe emphasized the need for prioritizing projects that expand the range of STEM ﬁelds. We also
recommended the introduction of learning materials thatappeal to women and gender minorities in order to ensure thatthey are not left behind in digital-related activities at schools.
As a result of our eﬀorts, METI s Study Group on Support for
Digital-Related Club Activities clearly speciﬁed the need fortaking gender perspectives into account.

Social changes-Positive actions are being implemented to increase the number of female students pursuing science and engineering ﬁelds-The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has called on universities to create a female quota
in science and engineering ﬁelds starting with the FY2023 university entrance exams.
-The Basic Policy for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2022 includes the following: By fostering comprehensive
understanding and support for eliminating gender bias and promoting learning and ﬁeld selection in science and engineering,
including IT ﬁelds for female junior and senior high school students, we will accelerate eﬀorts to improve the percentages offemale teachers and female students in science and engineering.

Promoting women's participation in IT
Current status
The IT industry is overwhelmingly male-dominated, and if
things continue the way they are, changing the structure
toward greater gender equality will be diﬃcult.

Waﬄe's recommendations
Waﬄe recommended the inclusion ofpromoting women's
participation into Japan s Digital Policy. Given the relatively
small wage gap between men and women in IT, increasing
women s participation in this ﬁeld will also help promote
greater gender equality.

Social changes
Formulation of the Women's Digital Human Resource Development Plan,
women digital human resources over the next three years

9

which pledges to strengthen the development of

Participant Interviews

Misaki Furukawa

Mone Sugiyama

Keiko Sugiyama

1st year technical college student

2nd year university student (science

1st year university student (science and(department of information engineering)major) from Tokyo

engineering department) from Tokyo

from Fukuoka Prefecture

Became interested in IT following younger

Participated in Waﬄe Camp in 2020 andParticipated in Technovation Girls 2022

sister Keiko s participation in Waﬄethen in Technovation Girls 2021

Currently studying English and information

programs

Also appears as a role model in Waﬄe's

engineering with the aim of going abroad

Participated in the ﬁrst semester of Waﬄerecently launched book I x IT = The

to pursue her studies in IT

College 2022

Strongest Theory

What was your experience participating in Technovation Girls (TG)?

What were your experiences participating in Waﬄe Camp, TG

but we were able to complement each other as a group, and it was

Keiko I took on the challenge of TG, I thought I could speak a little

Coding was diﬃcult, and I wasn't able to fully understand everything,a lot of fun overall. The team comprised ﬁve of us from diﬀerent parts(Keiko), and Waﬄe College (Mone)?

English, but after teaming up with a foreign engineer for a mentor, I

of Japan, including Fukuoka, Hokkaido, and Kanagawa, and we were

found it was more challenging than I realized (laughs). The program-all diﬀerent ages, but we were able to chat online and divide roles

ming language and environment were also diﬀerent from Waﬄe

and form a good team. It was interesting to see an abstract idea I

Camp, which made it even more diﬃcult, but I felt a great sense of

had take concrete shape.

accomplishment after we managed to successfully develop our app.
My team created an iOS app to visualize the sharing of housework

What has changed since joining TG?

between husband and wife. The app includes a function that allows

Before participating in TG, I often struggled with my problems alone

users to visualize time spent on household chores, so couples caneven during group work, but after joining TG and sharing my

express their gratitude to each other. Waﬄe Camp and TG gave me

problems with team members, I realized that they were very happy

the vision to realize that I wanted to pursue a career in IT, and I can

to work on them with me. This helped me learn to talk to people

feel that my world has expanded after listening to the stories ofaround me about my troubles.

various people through the program. It was also inspiring to see
other girls my own age with big dreams or girls who had accumulat-

What kind of app did you create?

ed a lot of experienced before participating in TG.

change. I don't tolerate heat well and get tired if I stay out for too

Mone During my drop year, while preparing for my university

We created an app that allows you to take action against climate
long in the summer. Meanwhile, the earth is getting hotter by theentrance exam, I heard about a university professor who had started

year, which I think is a big problem. So I joined a group with otherhis own business, and I vaguely thought about starting my own

girls who are also interested in climate change. The great thingbusiness at some point. After the exam, I started to wonder what

about apps is that they can make tackling major social issues more

could help me start a business. I realized that learning IT would beapproachable through everyday actions.

useful even if I did not pursue IT as a career. It was at this time that
Keiko told me about Waﬄe, and looking it up, I found that Waﬄe

Why did you decide to attend a technical college?

College happened to be recruiting ﬁrst semester students. At Waﬄe

I was a science student to begin with, but became speciﬁcallyCollege, I gained conﬁdence by creating my own web-based app,interested in information engineering after participating in TG andand went on to participate in an external development contest.

realizing that I wanted to write my own code. My mother mentioned
the option of technical college. The idea of getting admission into
university without taking the general entrance test was appealing,

Keiko

Had I not participated in TG or Waﬄe Camp, I might havebeen quite confused what career path to take. Since I was good atand the graduation research of senior students I saw at the open

mathematics, I knew that I wanted to pursue a science major, but I

school event was interesting, so I thought I would also like to use

was not sure what would come after that. Even now, while I do wanttechnology to do research that could help people.

to acquire information technology skills, I still haven t made a clear
decision. I need to think about this going forward.

What do you want to do at technical college/university going
forward?

What is your message for those who are considering participatingfrom headaches, so I would like to develop something to help other

Keiko

After entering university, I would ﬁrst like to master skills. I suﬀer
people like me who also suﬀer from headaches. Since I'm in thein Waﬄe's programs?

If you are unsure, please do participate. You will meet

people with diﬀerent approaches to life, and your world will expand.

Department of Control and Information Engineering, perhaps I could
invent a machine that controls atmospheric pressure to help
suppress headaches. I enjoyed the TG experience of coming up with

Mone At Waﬄe, you can learn to do many new things, but you will

also ﬁnd out what you re not good at. Waﬄe programs allow you toan idea and turning it into an app, so I want to continue turning ideas

challenge yourself to become stronger and gain an understanding of

into reality.

what more you need, so I recommend them to people who want tochallenge themselves. It is also great that you don't have to haveprior experience in IT to join these programs. There are many suchpeople who join these programs and learn IT from scratch, so I
would like to recommend them to ﬁrst-time IT learners as well.

10Corporate comments

Our company, which is responsible for the core IT department of the SMBC Group, has
implemented a range of initiatives to enable diverse employees to play an active role.
Our ratio of female engineers is now up to about 30%, and we have a large number ofwomen working with us actively, but women remain a minority when we look at the IT
industry as a whole. There is still an unconscious bias in society that IT is a male profession. I was thinking that it would be necessary to change the mindset of the younger
generation if we wanted to change the status quo, when I came across Waﬄe andconnected with their philosophy. We participate in Waﬄe programs as a sponsoring
company, and I have been moved to see junior high school, high school, and university
students seriously and enthusiastically working on app development and other projects
as they grow. We look forward to continue working with Waﬄe to eliminate the gender
gap in IT and realize a better future.

Yukiko Yoritaka
Managing Director, The Japan Research Institute, Limited.

While admittedly in a small way, we have been supporting Waﬄe since shortly after
its establishment in 2019. In the three years since then, we have seen the scope andscale of Waﬄe s activities, and the number of people involved, grow by leaps andbounds.
When I ﬁrst heard about Waﬄe's philosophy from its Co-founder & CEO, Sayaka
Tanaka, I thought,

This person has seriously taken up the challenge of something

we would never be able to accomplish on our own.

I think it will take a very longtime to close the gender gap. This is a process that resembles a marathon, with ups
and downs, not a sprint that requires a momentary spurt of energy. Rather than
one-oﬀ event sponsorships, therefore, I would be happy if we could be a source ofcontinued support to Waﬄe in their sincere endeavor to eliminate the gender gap.
Good products are created through the input of diverse opinions, and I hope that
there will be more opportunities for the acceptance of diversity in diﬀerent areas ofsociety as a result of Waﬄe's activities.

Takamasa Tamura
Representative Director, EDOCODE Inc.

11

March 28, 2022
Yomiuri Shimbun

App development from girls

MEDIA

Media
mentions

perspectives

Students participating in Technovation Girls at that time were interviewed.
The article tells the story of girls who had never met before forming a team to develop
an app to help students of their own age come together and work to make a diﬀerence.

May 10, 2022
NHK Close-up Gendai Plus: "Because you re a girl..." Harsh words that shatter a girl's conﬁdence
Waﬄe was interviewed as part of an eﬀort to break the curse of being a girl.
It was impressive to hear not just program participants but also interns commenting on how empowered
they felt working with Waﬄe.

July 25, 2022
Fukui Shimbun

IT jobs; Girls also interested; Prefectural board of education; Online courses next month

The Waﬄe Camp

Hometown

project in collaboration with local governments began inreal earnest in 2022. In addition to changing student attitudes, the project had a ripple eﬀect
in that we were able to share our values of gender equality with the local media and educators too.

Total media coverageWeb

37

Newspapers

23

Magazines

20

Radio

1

TV

4

For more information, please visit: waﬄe-waﬄe.org/media/

March 6, 2022

Sponsored by Kamiyama Marugoto Technical College Establishment Preparation Foundation

Kamiyama Marugoto Technical College presents Future School FES

March 7, 2022

SEMINER

Speeches

Sponsored by Lenovo Japan LLC

How long will this unconscious bias against women in science majors last?
What can schools and companies do?
For presentations made to government ministries and agencies, please see p10, Policy recommendations.

March 24, 2022
Waﬄe received the PERSOL Work-Style-AWARD 2022

September 26-29, 2022

NEWS

Announce- February 24, 2022
Waﬄe transitioned from general incorporated association to speciﬁed nonproﬁt organization status.
ments

PRISE

Awards

Waﬄe participated in the Grace Hopper Celebration,a festival for women and non-binary people in tech held in Florida, USA.

12

Supporting companies/organizations(in no particular order)

MetLife Insurance K.K.

TechnoPro Holdings, Inc.

Google.org

The Japan Research Institute, Limited

The Nippon Foundation

TokyoDev

The American Embassy

Unity Technologies Japan K.K.

Lenovo Japan LLC

Amazon Web Services Japan G.K.

Deloitte Tohmatsu Group LLC

CyberAgent, Inc.

EDOCODE Inc.

Skyscanner Ltd

Yahoo Japan Corporation, LINE Corporation(currently LY Corporation)

Sony People Solutions Inc.

Cybozu Inc.

13

J Stream Inc.

Support Waﬄe with a donation
Waﬄe aims to nurture female tech leaders from across Japan and solve a variety ofsocial issues. Your warm support is the driving force behind our activities.
Your donations are crucial if we are to continue our work. Donations are used toward
improving our teaching materials and to pay for things such as lending computers and
WiFi devices to junior high and high school students who lack the proper environment
to engage in programming.

For individual donations, please visit
syncable.biz/associate/555
Donors can choose from a variety of payment methods(bank transfer/credit cards) and frequencies.

Waﬄe is audited by an independent third party organization every year toensure that donations are being properly managed. We will put all the donations we receive to eﬀective and eﬃcient use in working to eliminate the gender
gap in IT.
We accept donations starting from as little as JPY 300 a month, so please do
consider supporting us!

Members
Sayaka Tanaka, Co-founder & CEO

Asako Osaki, Advisor

Momoka Kondo

Yuri Ishitoya

Asumi Saito, Co-founderJun Hozumi, Advisor

Ayaka Shiroma

Emi Ichimura

Kumiko Morita, Director

Yuichiro Masui, Advisor

Maira Suzuki

Yoshino Kodama

Manami Maitoko, Manager

Toshiro Michael Oomoto, Advisor

Keith Stevens

Tomoyo Takagi

Maiko Furuse, Manager

Nene Shirakawa, Advisor

Riho Takagi

Ayana Murakami

Ryohei Tonegawa, Accounts

Masanobu Seto, Advisor

Yuki Takahashi

Mio Terakado

Misaki Takenaga, General Aﬀairs

Yusuke Ando

Urara Nakauchi

Reika Nishino

Kensaku Tsujita, Public Relations

Tae Ogata

Nanami Funatsu

Chio Fuseya

Yuta Tonegawa, Advisor

Natsumi Ohara

Takafumi Moroishi

Rio Fuseya

Yan Fan, Advisor

Yu Kamiya

Maoko Abe

14

Waffle2022
ANNUAL REPORT