Not only can young Japanese women look forward to a longer life than their male peers, now they also make more money.

日本年轻女性不但预期寿命会比男性长，如今她们赚的钱也比男性多。

Income for single women under 30 hit an average of 218,156 yen¹ ($2,680) a month in 2009, edging above the 215,515 yen ($2,640) of their male counterparts for the first time ever, according to an Internal Affairs ministry² survey.

The change, which saw women's incomes surge 11.4 percent from the previous survey five years ago compared to a 7 percent fall for men, was driven by the plunge³（投入，跳进） of the global economy and the fact that men's incomes simply had more room to fall.

"Basically, men's salaries were much higher in general, and they took a much bigger hit when the economy worsened," said Hideo Kumano, chief economist⁴ at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

"In addition, many more men work in manufacturing than women, and after the Lehman failure things for this sector⁵ really chilled."

Japan's economy has always been export-dependent and centered around manufacturers, who suffered especially badly from the late 2008 failure of Lehman Bros and the global stock market plunge that followed. In early 2009, Japanese stocks fell to a 26-year closing low.

By contrast, women are much more involved in jobs in medicine and nursing care, which have surged as Japan's population ages.

In addition, Kumano said, younger women may finally be starting to reap the rewards of the trails blazed by older predecessors⁶ in white-collar jobs such as finance.

"Women are now more able to take career-track jobs like this thanks to those in their 40s and older, who now are taking up managerial positions," he added.

But Kumano cautioned the figures may be a one-off fluctuation⁷ and it is still too early to see if the change is lasting⁸.

According to the 2009 United Nations Development Programme's Gender⁹ Empowerment Measure, Japan ranked 57th out of 109 countries in political and economic participation¹⁰ for women.

Women accounted for（占……比率） only 4.1 percent of department managers in private corporations in 2008, according to a study by Japan's Gender Equality Bureau of the Cabinet Office.