I don't know. I was about to jump to writing no, they've just set the qualification time wrong, there's nothing in it, but then I read -
The incredible popularity of the Hakone Ekiden makes it a magnet for men's talent that just doesn't exist for women, so that would partially explain participation. But I think what's more relevant here is the distances at Hakone. As I've written before, the intense focus on Hakone's half-marathonish stage distance for four years in university makes it a shorter jump to the marathon, exactly what Hakone was intended to do. At the New Year Ekiden, the corporate men's national championships, there's a stage that length too, and it's not a surprise that most of the top marathoners run it.
None of that exists for women. All the way up, their ekidens are shorter and the longest stage is also shorter than what the men do. In high school the longest stage is 6.0 km for women and 10.0 km for men. At the National University Women's Ekiden it's 9.2 km vs. 19.7 km at the National University Men's Ekiden. At the Mt. Fuji University Women's Ekiden it's 10.5 km against Hakone's 23.1 km. At the National Corporate Women's Ekiden it's 10.9 km vs. 22.4 km at the New Year Ekiden. Only the National Women's Ekiden and National Men's Ekiden, where runners of all ages compete for their home prefectures, come close to equality, women running up to 10.0 km and men 13.0 km.
When the main focus is 10 km it seems like it'd be harder or take longer to work up to the marathon than when it's on the half-marathon, a jump fewer women would take successfully, or at all. Even the National Corporate Half-Marathon is now split between a 10 km and half-marathon for women, but not for men. It's also a fact that back in the day when the women were at their peak globally in the marathon Japan had a whole circuit of women-only half marathons too, and that many of them are gone now.
Not that the marathon is the be-all end-all or that more people running longer younger is necessarily a brilliant idea. One flip side is that more Japanese women qualify on the track, and do better there, than men. But given the context we're talking about maybe having a half-marathonesque stage at the women's university and corporate national championship ekidens would be a good place to start in increasing the numbers of Japanese women having success in the marathon. There are a lot of other things that could stand to be changed, but that seems like one concrete, easy-to-implement takeaway from what's worked with the men that could help bring Japanese women one step closer to parity. Assuming that's a priority, at all.
It sounds like it's due to tradition, and knowing the tradition in other countries, such as women not being able to run the marathon until the 1970s, the 800m being the longest event etc - that was down to sexism.
But with this, I don't know, I don't really think so, especially as he says that with track events it's the other way around, more Japanese women qualify than men.
I just think they set the time wrong, that's all.
Other countries have too. It's nuts to have over 100 people achieving the qualification time (Ethiopia!).