It is a nation that has consistently languished at the bottom end of gender equality rankings in the developed world.

And now, Japan is also home to a popular new movement which aims to help “empower” women – by encouraging them to wear high heels.

The Japan High Heel Association (JHA) is calling on women to swap sensible flat shoes for stilettos in order to boost their confidence in society as well as improve their posture.

The all-female organisation charges more than 400,000 yen (£3,000) for a six-month series of “walking etiquette classes,” with its popularity reflected in the fact that 4,000 Japanese woman having already completed the course.

The organisation is one of a string of schools which are cropping up across Japan offering similar high heel-wearing classes to women, in order to give them "confidence" as well a poised posture. Critics have condemned the popularity of such high heel-related activities, in a society that remains deeply patriarchal, as both sexist and laughable.

Dismissing the idea as “nonsense”, Mitsuko Shimomura, a prominent social commentator, said: “There’s no relationship between wearing high heels and women’s power. It sounds crazy.”

The nation’s “call to heels” is sharply at odds with growing efforts within Japan to change an engrained culture of gender imbalances which prevails despite the high-profile efforts of the government’s so-called “womenomics” policies.