GENDER EQUALITY
Japan - Japanese female employees who lead business divisions in traditional large corporations remain few and far between despite the equal employment law that was passed 25 years ago.
According to the recent Kyodo News survey, 107 out of 110 large companies polled said women make up only 5.4% of the total number of corporate managers combined. Female employees also make up about 2.5% at the directorial level and 1.7% at the senior executive level. This is a huge contrast from countries like the US and Germany where four in ten managers are female. But Japanese respondents did say it was important to utilise female talent as the talent pool shrinks. Women currently make up around 28% of new hires fast-tracked for managerial positions this year.
The Japanese government has set a goal of increasing women in managerial or leadership positions to 30% by 2020 but companies are less than enthusiastic about it. The poll suggested that Japanese firms still perceive business management as a man's job. But they are slowly warming up to the idea of employing more females with 27 firms hoping their female talent would reform their business. Respondents predict an average increase of 18.6% females for section chiefs, 15.4% for department heads and 14.4% for senior executives. Yet 28 respondents said women should acquire a broader perspective, 13 said women should be more flexible and 12 do not want them to quit early.
Professor Takashi Kashima, a gender studies expert at Jissen Women's University, said employers need to give women more say and job security if they really want gender equality in their midst.
Government statistics showed that seven in 10 temporary workers have always been female for the last 20 years. Reasons given by 131 respondents include women can't hold full-time jobs because they need to raise children or they have quit in the past for family reasons. But with public concern growing about helping working women maintain both family and work, three-quarters of respondents have implemented some measures for those with children.
Kashima said, "That says much about the growth over the past quarter of a century of public understanding about the ideals upheld by the Equal Employment Opportunity Law [enforced in 1986]."
Kashima added that companies still need to do much more to help women advance further in their careers and stay much longer in the workforce.
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