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Womenomics, ‘Equality’ and Abe’s Neo-liberal Strategy to Make Japanese Women Shine
Abstract
By international measurements, Japan fares poorly on gender equality With the second largest gender pay gap and the worst record for women's political representation among OECD countries, Japanese women have limited access to positions of power and influence. The government has begun to address these inequalities with a raft of policies that attempt to bridge these chronic gender gaps, with the recent policies of the Abe administration being referred to as womenomics. Heralded by many as an important step in the right direction, womenomics has also been criticised as a misguided co-optation of feminism. This Survey discusses the implications of the long-working-hours culture on gender equality policies and the implementation of womenomics within a climate of neo-liberal management practices justified through chronic economic stagnation. Far from the empowering outcomes it rhetorically espouses, this evaluation suggests that womenomics is further exacerbating the bipolarisation of Japanese women into two groups: a small elite minority capable of assimilating to masculinised working patterns versus the vast majority of women ghettoized into insecure underpaid non-regular work that denies access to crucial benefits.
... From this theoretical framework, various women-focused economic projects evolved and starting in 2008, several corporations made a commitment to recruit actively more women into their organizations in an attempt to diversify the face of global finance (Griffin, 2019). Some examples of these initiatives include Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Women program, Procter and Gamble's #WeSeeEqual campaign (Fodor et al., 2018) and the Japanese government's Womenomics policies (Dalton 2017;Matsui et al., 2019), which were developed and implemented in an attempt to further advance the neoliberal feminist agenda in the international political economy. ...
... In 2012, the IMF estimated that Japan's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could increase by up to 4% in 2030 should the female labor force participation rate increased from 63% in 2010 to 70% (Dalton, 2017). In conjunction, Goldman Sachs' chief Japan strategist, Kathy Matsui, published a series of papers which outlined the benefits Japan's economy could experience by incorporating more women into the formal economy as well as leadership positions. ...
... In conjunction, Goldman Sachs' chief Japan strategist, Kathy Matsui, published a series of papers which outlined the benefits Japan's economy could experience by incorporating more women into the formal economy as well as leadership positions. These ideas were picked up by the Japanese government in 2013 and were incorporated into formal policies (Dalton, 2017;Pradipta & Kusumasari, 2021;Reynolds & Nohara, 2021). Japan has a relatively high level of gender inequality, especially for an industrialized economy (Reynolds & Nohara, 2021). ...
PURPOSE: This theoretical study seeks to understand how the development of ‘Transnational Business Feminism’ in response to the 2008 financial crisis, was implemented in 2013 through Japan’s ‘Womenomics’ program. The paper further examines how efficient this said form of neoliberal feminist economic program was in in addressing vulnerabilities in the Japanese financial system during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, it looks at how the pandemic has shifted conversations around the future of gender and finance in Japan through the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) framework. DESIGN/METHOD: Drawing on a variety of sources, this paper uses a case study research methodology as well as statistical data from a variety of sources to draw theoretical conclusions on the specific case of Japan’s economy. RESULTS/FINDINGS: This paper reveals that the programs implemented by the Japanese government failed to address existing gender inequalities and systemic risk in the Japanese economy, and that women in Japan were hit much harder by the repercussions of the pandemic, in spite of Womenomics policies. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This study offers insights into the effectiveness of neoliberal feminist agendas in addressing systemic financial and economic risk, in order to help optimize the potential of ESG. KEYWORDS: Womenomics, Japan, gender, finance. JEL: B54, J16, N25
... The percentage of female employees with managerial responsibility in the private sector was only 9 % in 2014 (OECD, 2017). There are many reasons for such high gender inequity, including the influence of Confucianism (Sugihara & Katsurada, 2002), employment practices such as life-time employment, seniority, long-work-hour culture, and a masculine organizational culture (Dalton, 2017;Nemoto, 2013). ...
... Several policy and legislative initiatives have been made, including the enactment of the national Equal Employment Opportunity Law in 1986, the Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society in 1999, and the recent womenomics policy by the Abe Administration, which aims at the empowerment of women (Dalton, 2017;Shinohara et al., 2016). Since Prime Minister Abe took over his office again in December 2012, his Cabinet has put a priority on policies to increase women in leadership positions. ...
... PM Abe's economic plan, "Abenomics", has three pillars: fiscal injection, aggressive monetary policy, and womenomics. One of the core of the womenomics policy is to set numerical targets of share of women in leadership positions at least 30 % by 2020 in all fields, including politics, central government, local government, private sector, and education and research fields (Dalton, 2017). 4 In August 2015, the Japanese Diet passed "the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace" (Josei Katsuyaku Suishin Hou). ...
Suzuki examines the status of social equity in the context of Japanese culture and society. The concept of social equity has not been widely discussed or well understood in the field of Japanese public administration and politics. Although the term social equity has not been explicitly used, Suzuki identifies several policies and administrative practices in Japan can be identified that serve to address various dimensions of disparities among citizens. Regional disparity is one of these dimensions of social equity that Japanese public policy and politics have addressed and been most successful in solving in the last few decades.
... As Japan's population continues to shrink, more women in stable employment are necessary to promote economic growth, a concept that was a driving force behind former prime minister Shinzō Abe's plan, known as Womenomics, for increasing the number of working women (Dalton, 2017). ...
... Therefore, each parent needed to maintain a "working visa" so giving up work was not an option." (Kittaka, 2018), and a general cultural and social view that women should sacrifice themselves or their careers for the sake of their children (Dalton, 2017). All these factors affect not only the working woman, but also their partner and family. ...
The biggest challenges foreign working mothers in Japan face are stress, lack of personal time, and managing clashes between school events and work (Landsberry & Kanai, 2018). Whilst these issues may be faced by mothers across the world, foreign working mothers in Japan face unique obstacles, including language difficulties and cultural differences. The level of support received becomes important in helping them manage their multiple roles as caregivers and professionals. Using data obtained via an anonymous online questionnaire, this study investigates the level of support provided to foreign working women by their partners and family. It also explores their hopes for improvements at the societal level. It is hoped that the realization of the lack of societal and familial support would increase the level of understanding for foreign working mothers in Japan. In addition, our data clearly shows that an immediate increase in the number of childcare facilities and a more flexible and supportive work culture are needed to improve the situation.
... Single mothers are among the most significantly disadvantaged groups, as evidenced by the fact that their average net income is less than half that of all households with children (Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare [MHLW], 2022), with half of the single mothers depending on precarious jobs (Children and Families Agency, 2022). In addition, social norms that assume a male breadwinner contribute to challenges faced by single mothers, including rental market discrimination (Ezawa, 2016) and limited job opportunities (Dalton, 2017). Women, especially those born in and before the 1960s, even some of those who in reality are single mothers themselves, firmly embrace the image of an "ordinary" family (Ezawa, 2016). ...
... One of her notable discourses concerned her resentment toward immigrant/foreign parents, who in her eyes appeared to enjoy parenting in Japan, receiving financial assistance which they should not be entitled to, or illegally staying in the country. Such antipathy makes sense considering that she had struggled financially to bring up her son in a single-mother household since her divorce (Dalton, 2017;Ezawa, 2016). For Aoki, it appeared that divorce was not merely a matter of socio-economic disadvantages, but also a moral issue, which was evident from her repeated self-deprecating use of the term "selfish" with regard to her decision to be divorced and her description of the subsequent struggles that her son had to go through. ...
While far-right movements are commonly associated with masculinity and women are in the minority, it is notable that they often play significant roles within these movements. To deepen our understanding of the motivations behind women’s participation, this study challenges Blee’s argument that women’s motivations for participating are shaped by their interactions with other members. By using the psychosocial method devised by Hollway and Jefferson and developed by Gadd, the present study argues that women’s pre-participation experiences can play a vital part in drawing them to the movements. Through analyzing the life stories of six far-right women in Japan and conducting an in-depth case study of three of them, the study aims to uncover a wide range of experiences that may initially appear unrelated to far-right ideology but ultimately led these subjects to become involved in far-right movements. It highlights the importance of paying attention to their complex subjectivities, which are formed by the interplay between their unique trajectories and societal transitions concerning gender norms, particularly within the era of neoliberal “emancipation.” The study finds that the duality of far-right movements, which combine conservatism with deviance, enables some women to express paradoxical desires that they experience in response to living through a transitional era.
... This situation of Japanese women as lowwage, precarious workers at the point of intersection between culture, capital, and policy, creates rippling ramifications for many women, but especially for single-mother households, contributing to child poverty rates that place Japan near the bottom in the Global North. These books, among others, drew attention to the specificity of poverty for women, addressing their roles as productive and social reproductive workers often ignored in the mainstream (Dalton, 2017). ...
This article looks at three recent Japanese mass market works about poverty, arguing that each is representative of a different mode of depicting economic disparity and want in contemporary Japan – individualization, nationalization, and generalization. These modes of representation contribute to a comparatively low level of awareness of poverty as a major social problem as well as political inaction. Following Raymond Williams' interrogation of social “keywords” as well as critical discourse analysis to identify the interplay of absences and presences in these accounts, this article will argue that even empathic approaches toward poverty can obscure its complex interconnections, disparities such as its disproportionate impact on Japanese women, and block the thinking of social and economic alternatives.
... Various opinions about Abe's women's policy have emerged, including the concerns that it focuses solely on elite women, may inadvertently increase female poverty, and does not contribute to gender equality. Additionally, there are concerns about the rise of neoliberalism and the perceived contradictions within the policy itself (Dalton, 2017;Dobson, 2017;Miura, 2015;Schieder, 2014). ...
Prime Minister Abe’s bold policy proposals focused on women attracted significant attention and various responses. However, going back to the fundamentals, LDP is a conservative political party, and Abe himself identifies as a conservative. During the backlash era, he attacked gender equality and emphasised traditional family values and patriotism. This paper reexamines the implications of the women's policies implemented under his leadership from a gender perspective. It sheds light on the deeply entrenched and complex gender inequality regimes that prevail in Japanese society. It becomes evident that Abe's administration carefully avoided any explicit reference to gender equality, skilfully incorporating recommendations such as promoting three-generation households, while consistently depicting women as operating under the guidance of men, signifying that the government's underlying “traditional” values had not changed. Women's Advancement policy, in essence, implies the deep entrenchment of a Japanese-style patriarchal, vertical society made up of political parties, administration, corporations, and society at large, where women are granted opportunities to succeed through assimilation into a gendered world involving subordination to men.
... The issue of gender equality was not treated completely, the burden was still on women to return to work without proper support (Oi, 2021). The critiques also point to the fact that the introduced policies of Womenomics do not cover most of the women that still have the double burden of unpaid household chores and low-income jobs (Dalton, 2017). ...
Japan has one of the world's most family‐friendly parental leave systems. However, a government survey conducted in 2020 found that less than 13 percent of male respondents exercised their right to take paternity leave, leaving the burden of child‐rearing to the mothers. Although Japan's Government has made parental leave a top priority, the effects on society are still modest. Work culture, labor regulation, and gender bias are some of the challenges in the imbalanced parenting problem. Solving a society‐related issue requires a holistic approach that considers complex multidimensional aspects. This paper uses the Unified Architecture Framework to model a Social Enterprise by investigating the Japanese parenting problem. We use the challenges and drivers identified in the Japanese case to explore viewpoints that place the human aspect of parenting together with business and policymaking. Lastly, we introduce the next parenting phase considering principles from Society 5.0.
... However, just like the earlier Equal Employment Opportunity Law of 1985, the new law imposed no penalty on political parties that failed to meet the targets. Abe's critics doubt that his government made much progress on reducing gender inequality (Miura, 2016;Dalton, 2017; for a more favorable view, see Noble, 2019). ...
This article has two objectives. One is to explain the rise of female political representation in local assemblies in Tokyo's 23 Special Wards. The other is to examine how political women in Japan have or have not changed since the publication of Susan Pharr's Political Women in Japan in 1981. When Tokyo first saw the emergence of a new type of local assembly women in the 1990s, they consisted of well-educated suburban housewives who led the Seikatsusha Nettowaku movement. In the past 15 years, however, Tokyo has witnessed a decline in ‘housewife politicians’ and a further diversification in the types of political women. This article pays special attention to a new type of political women called Mama Giin (literally, mommy politicians). Mama Giin are professional working mothers, who have become local assembly women to address deficiencies in childcare services. Their numbers increased as socio-economic changes and party realignment reshaped supply and demand for female candidates in Tokyo. Most of them accept the gendered responsibilities for childcare very much like Pharr's New Women did in the 1970s. The younger cohorts of highly educated women enjoy greater job options and life choices unavailable to the New Women of their mothers' generation. However, they do not necessarily challenge Japan's patriarchy. This article examines the biographies of female local politicians in Tokyo's 23 Special Ward assemblies to understand the rise of Mama Giin .
... The inability to work the same amount of time as men resulted in low likelihood of future promotion (Kato et al., 2013). Dalton (2017) argued that the existing Japanese employment system makes women's employment highly polarized, and that career-family balance is almost impossible to achieve in this system. Japanese women face a career path in which they must settle for a non-regular job if they cannot make the same commitment as their male colleagues. ...
Although the social-economic status of women has improved worldwide, with several factors reducing gender differences in labor participation and income equality, a substantial gender gap persists. The goal of this study is to determine how the gender gap is associated with social norms. Specifically, within the context of gender roles, we examine the social norm that wives should not earn more than their husbands. We estimate a model that explains wives’ labor force participation in terms of the probability of wives earning more than their husbands by applying an estimation procedure that accounts for potential bias arising from self-selection into employment. Since the impact of social norms can vary in different cultural contexts, we compare the estimation results using datasets obtained from surveys conducted in Japan and the US—representing Eastern and Western cultures, respectively. Our results indicate that a 10 percentage point increase in the probability of wives earning more than their husbands is associated with an 8 percentage point decrease in their labor force participation rate in Japan, whereas the probability of wives earning more is not significant when the model is estimated using U.S. data. Thus, wives’ labor force participation decisions can be related to the social norm more closely in Japan than in the US, reflecting the different social status of women in these countries.
... Nachdem Japans Sozialsystem der Nachkriegszeit stark auf dem Modell des männlichen Alleinverdieners beruhte, arbeitet die gegenwärtige japanische Sozialpolitik an Strukturen, die eine Gesellschaft mit einem hohen Anteil an Doppelverdiener-Mit dem Amtsantritt der LDP-Regierung Ende 2012 unter Shinzō Abe wurde eine familien-und arbeitsmarktpolitische Wende vollzogen. Unter dem Neologismus »Womenomics« ist die Teilnahme gut ausgebildeter Frauen am Arbeitsmarkt Teil einer nationalen Gesamtstrategie zur Ankurbelung der Wirtschaft (Dalton 2017;Macnaughtan 2015;Schad-Seifert 2015). Der Akzentwechsel, der mit der Politik zur »Förderung der aktiven Nutzung von Frauen« (josei katsuyaku suishin) eintrat, ist die stärker marktorientierte Zielsetzung im Sinne einer Investition. ...
Dual-Income Households in Japan: Social Policy Implications for a Dual-Earner Society
While Japan's post-war social system was based on the male-breadwinner model, current Japanese social policy is working on structures that should facilitate the development into a society with a high proportion of dual-income households. In 2016, the Japanese government passed a "Law to Promote the Active Utilization of Women”, which has triggered a set of work style reforms. It seems that policy makers in Japan have finally admitted the negative associations between Japan’s corporate culture and women’s career empowerment. In fact, statistical data reflects an increase in the proportion of full-time employed Japanese women living in a family with children. But recent studies on family and work in Japan have pointed out that there is still a critical gap between the political and legal initiatives intended to promote full-time working couples and the actual social reality of the gender-segregated domestic household. The paper addresses current data and survey results that help to understand how social policy in Japan mediates the relationship between economic resources such as employment and gender norms with regard to family and work.
... There is broad agreement that Japan fares poorly on gender equality in international comparisons. Women's political representation is among the lowest among OECD countries, and Japanese women have limited access to positions of power and influence (Dalton, 2017). The workplace is no better: in 2017, Japan had the thirdlargest gender pay gap behind Korea and Estonia, effectively one of the main reasons for Japan's low overall ranking on gender equality (OECD, 2017). ...
We use labor market data spanning 1988–2018 to show how labor market outcomes in terms of the number of standard and non-standard jobs have strongly outperformed projections based on labor market participation rates and size of active population. As we show, a substantial part of this employment growth originated from an increase in female labor market participation. We further document a general decline of the gender pay gap, and of the pay gap between standard and non-standard employment. Part of this female success actually came at the expense of men, particularly so for the period 2010–2018, during which male regular employment declined while that of women strongly increased. What is more, women were making these inroads particularly within formerly male-dominated industries, such as construction, manufacturing, and banking & insurance. Notably, this success did not originate from firms increasingly struggling to identify suitable male candidates: On the industry level, we find no significant correlation between job opening ratios and gender differentials in employment growth.
... Policy efforts to make the full-time labor force more accessible to women have been highly publicized and numerous in recent years, most notably the Abe administration's "Womenomics" policy, first unveiled in 2013. However, these policies appear to have benefited only the small number of women capable of assimilating into Japan's traditional, masculinized employment arrangement while segregating the majority of women into precarious, part-time work (Dalton 2017). In addition, a relatively weak welfare system, ineffective government policies for easing work-family conflicts, and an insufficient number of day care center spaces (Boling 2015) have made it difficult for wives and mothers to balance family obligations with those of full-time paid work. ...
Background: This paper takes a unique perspective on the debate surrounding the deinstitutionalization of marriage. Rather than examining how diversification of family behaviors (external context) relates to marriage, it considers how perceptions of marriage dimensions (the internal context) vary across relevant stakeholders. Objective: We ask whether perceived consequences of marriage differ for people who married vs. people who never married and men vs. women and over time. Methods: Based on data from the 1994 National Survey on Work and Family Life in Japan and the 2000 and 2009 National Survey of Family and Economic Conditions (NSFEC) in Japan (N = 8,467) we use unique measures of perceived consequences of marriage ("marriage counterfactuals") to examine social, economic, psychological, and personal dimensions (i.e., respect, living standard, emotional security, freedom, and overall satisfaction). Results: Ordinal regression results reveal that marital perceptions worsened over time (in terms of living standard and freedom), consistent with worsening economic conditions. We also find that people who have never been married tend to view marriage more favorably than their married counterparts (especially freedom and respect), while men view marriage consequences (except for living standard) more favorably than women. Conclusions: Despite more negative change over time in perceptions of marriage among people who never married than people who have married, the traditional breadwinner-homemaker model of marriage continues to be important and influential in Japan, and cultural beliefs regarding traditional marriage persist in spite of structural changes. Contribution: Research and theory on family change should pay more attention to the internal marriage context more fully than they have in the past.
... Perhaps the starkest sign that the fertility claims made for work-life balance policies have lost their luster is the limited discussion of fertility rates during the recent period in which Prime Minister Abe was promoting 'womenomics', a set of policies designed to grow the proportion of working-age women in the workforce, especially in management positions (Dalton 2017). Consider, for example, the data assembled to support these reforms by Kathy Matsui and her partners at Goldman Sachs (Matsui et al 2014). ...
Why are women (and men) in advanced industrialized nations having fewer babies, and is there anything society can do to encourage more procreation? Over the past three decades, governments have become interested in these questions as societies squeezed between an aging baby boomer generation and a shrinking base of taxpayers have searched for ways to ‘cure’ their declining fertility problem. Social science has not identified any consistent policy solution to this problem, but that has not stopped policy entrepreneurs from presenting available evidence in ways that promote work–life balance policies as the ‘cure’. This article examines how Japan has adopted policies from this menu over the past three decades, in hopes of boosting fertility rates. The absence of a strong rebound, despite these policy changes, suggests that policy entrepreneurs have oversold childcare services and parental leave as the solution. What may be needed to increase rates, Japan’s experience suggests, are far-reaching changes in norms governing gender roles, the demands employers can make on employees, and ideas about what it means to be a ‘family’.
... In recent years, popular discourses about diversity in Japanese companies have gained in importance, but academic engagement with the issue has so far primarily focused on gender aspects; Japanese companies have been described as heavily gendered institutions, with employment practices historically shaped to the needs of a homogenous male labour force, that continue to disadvantage female employees, despite the fact that female employment has markedly increased and is seen as vital to address demographically induced labour shortages (Acker, 1990;Dalton, 2017;Keizer, 2008;Nemoto, 2013;Olcott and Oliver, 2014). This article aims to widen our understanding of how Japanese companies address diversity issues based on an in-depth investigation of the situation of another distinct and growing group of employees: non-Japanese fresh university graduates. ...
This article investigates the capacity of Japanese companies to integrate non-Japanese employees into headquarters in Japan, following recent initiatives to recruit significant numbers of foreign fresh graduates from universities in and outside of Japan. Grounding our research in the literature on diversity in workplaces and through an interview study with young foreign employees and representatives from human resource departments, we argue that the nature of Japanese training regimes, mismatches in expectations between employees and employers and a denial of authenticity inhibit the successful integration of young foreign employees. Based on the Japanese case, we question in general terms the complementarity between diversity and inclusion and different kinds of training regimes. We also point to the possibility that companies use diversity initiatives instrumentally to develop their existing core labour forces with a view to stabilise rather than fundamentally change the status quo.
... The third most popular solution is to reform people's mindset (8). Nowadays, many women still blame the old generation's mindset which seems to affect the present young generations. ...
Women’s empowerment is the pivot point of this paper. While the BA thesis
analyzed women’s empowerment in the Japanese literature of the past, the MA thesis
shifted to the investigation of contemporary Japanese women’s awareness of gender
inequalities in the workplace and Womenomics. This thesis attempts to suggest possible
solutions to gender discrimination in the Japanese workplace. In order to accomplish this
goal, the issues which should be questioned to women in order to understand their
awareness of the gender gap and Womenomics’ flaws were reviewed (i.e. childcare
support, maternity leave, female managers’ shortage etc.). It is believed that Japanese
women still struggle to be treated equally to men at work. Furthermore, it appears that
Japanese working system does not allow them to have a good work-life balance. Thus,
they are often obliged to make a choice between having a family of having a bright
professional career. While the first chapter describes the preexisting literature, the second
one explains the adopted methodology. A quantitative method was used for data
collection; a questionnaire written both in English and Japanese language was spread
online through an anonymous link from December 2019 to April 2020. The chosen
sample consisted of Japanese women employed in Japanese companies alone. At a later
stage, data analysis was done through a qualitative approach. The collected information
was elaborated with a narrative and descriptive analysis.
Respondents’ feedback to the questionnaire I spread in Japan was fundamental to draw
this project’s conclusions. In this regard, Japanese women seem not to be aware of
Womenomics’ contents and the majority of them consider these polices as useless in
terms of women’s empowerment. By contrast, they are well aware of gender inequalities
at their workplace, and they offered valuable solutions to solve the problem. A
prospective awareness-raising intervention is considered essential because it would help
to sensitize people to the problem and to faster gender equality’s fulfillment. Moreover, if
people were aware of the persistent gender gap in contemporary society, their perception
would encourage leaders to take action for the creation of a gender-equal society.
According to the majority of the questionnaire’s respondents, if people cooperate as
individuals and not as men and women, it will possibly be a starting point for gender
stereotypes’ elimination.
... 238 Although the scope and some of the effects of these laws have been positive in terms of promoting equality for women, some authors point out that they were in fact serving politicians' and businesses' hidden agendas and contributed to widening the gender divide. 239 One feminist author, Ayako Kano, contends that the passing of these laws in the 1990s was a sign that the state was embracing the ideas of feminism. 240 However, scholar Emma Dalton has noted that gender equality policies envisioning a society "where women shine" can have an ambiguous effect: they create a polarization not only between men and women, who must compete for a decreasing number of regular jobs, but also between a minority of privileged women who can and will benefit from these measures to advance their careers and the vast majority of women who work in temporary, low paid jobs. ...
Gender diversity in corporate governance is a highly debated issue worldwide. National campaigns such as “2020 Women on Boards” in the United States and “Women on the Board Pledge for Europe” are examples of just two initiatives aimed at increasing female representation in the corporate boardroom. Several European countries have adopted board quotas as a means toward achieving gender diversity. Japan has passed an Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace to lay a foundation for establishing targets for promoting women. This Article examines the status of women in positions of leadership in the United States, several major countries in the European Union, and Japan. We focus on the legal backdrop in each jurisdiction regarding gender discrimination and studies tending to demonstrate the economic benefits of gender diversity. We conclude that although important steps have been taken in the direction of narrowing the gender gap in all jurisdictions examined, progress has been slow and difficult across the board. The issue of too few women at the top will not be resolved until there is a wider acceptance that female leaders can benefit their organizations and contribute to social and economic progress. Moreover, the presence of women on corporate boards is valuable in and of itself and the status quo ought to be further challenged in international business.
... Emma Dalton (2017) in her article adds an analysis of Chelsea Szendi Scheader (2014). While Chelsea Szendi Scheader focuses on female workers, especially in political setting, Emma Dalto adds a discussion on womenomics which implies that women further exacerbate the bipolarization of Japanese women into two groups: small elite minorities who are able to assimilate with masculinistic work patterns and a large majority of women categorized into less secure and unsafe 'non-regular' work groups, that are denied important useful access. ...
In Japan, the employment rate for disabled women is significantly lower than that of disabled men and of non-disabled women. Disabled women suffer from double discrimination in the labour market, due to both their gender and their disability. However, following recent policies aimed at improving access to employment for disabled people, a growing number of media representations are picturing disabled people, including women, at work.
The film 37 seconds (2019) was part of that movement. Work is not its core subject. Indeed, it deals primarily with the main character’s quest for self through love and sexuality. Yet, the character Yuma, a young woman living with cerebral palsy, does work, as a self-employed mangaka. Her work appears to be a passion, a part of her personality and quest for happiness, and, at the same time, a source of precarity. Work and sexuality are closely intertwined, as her editor advises her to lose her virginity to write better stories.
This chapter analyses representations of disabled women’s work in this film. By comparing these representations with recent fieldwork data on disabled women’s experiences of employment, it highlights how the film constructs a discourse that is both dramatised and realistic.
The present paper addresses the ongoing issue of gender disparities in Japan. It seeks to gauge the attitudes and aspirations of Japanese college students regarding marriage, children, gender roles and participation in the workforce and in the household. A survey was conducted among male and female college students enrolled at national, public, and private higher education institutions in Tokyo and central Japan. Our results suggest that although marriage and the male breadwinner model continue to be mainstays in Japanese society, both male and female students have positive aspirations regarding marriage and children, and hold more egalitarian views regarding gender roles in the workforce and family.
Purpose
This study aims to explore the mechanism of the relationships between financial and non-financial outcomes and gender equality through a case study of a Japanese bank that has consistently pursued gender equality.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study was adopted to explore the outcomes of promoting gender equality. Primary data were collected from 12 semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed by rereading and coding the interview responses coded to generate themes.
Findings
Through governance reform in Company A, women have been placed in top management positions and the number of female managers has increased, allowing frontline intentions to be reflected in decision-making. The increased number of female managers has led to a decrease in female turnover, men taking parental leave, improved training of female managers and the recruitment of excellent new graduates. The appropriate allocation of jobs to female managers and employees also meets customer needs and has led to increased sales. Finally, involvement of female employees in product development in male-dominated workplaces brings women’s experiences and perspectives to product development, resulting in the development of products that are favoured by customers.
Originality/value
This study determined the mechanism behind the relationships between financial and non-financial outcomes and gender equality, based on agency, upper echelons, resource dependence, institutional and social role theories. It also contributes to gender equality research methodology by providing compelling qualitative stories of gender equality outcomes to increase a company’s commitment to promoting gender equality.
The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between sustainable and competitive transition in enterprise performance management and measurement and the changing role of women in the Japanese labour market. The work correlates the proportion of female employees in leadership positions in relation to the sector type, firm age, profits and encouragement of women’s participation in the labour force over six significant periods. The study also examines correlations between the encouragement of women’s participation in the labour force and high productivity, improvement of work-life balance and higher integration of female staff in the workforce. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 152 Japanese companies as part of the research. Non-parametric tests and exploratory data analysis were used for evaluation. The linear-by-linear test was applied to ordinal categories to determine the trend between the proportion of female employees in leadership positions and the encouragement of women’s participation in the labour force. The results indicate that partial changes have occurred as far as women in the Japanese labour market are concerned and confirm that working women are faced with persistent obstacles in terms of higher integration of female staff in the workforce and improvement of work-life balance. A future research direction worth considering is a study focused on other countries in Asia, comparing the findings with this paper.
This text presents a discussion about the reality lived on the periphery of the city of Rio de Janeiro - Brazil, a tourist town, full of social contradictions, with an exuberant nature and great contrasts, regarding the population’s access to leisure possibilities. This is a survey conducted at Amorcomtur! Study Group on Communication, Tourism, Lovingness and Autopoiesis, linked to the Postgraduate Program in Tourism and Hospitality, at the University of Caxias do Sul, in the South of Brazil. The theoretical framework is transdisciplinary, following the group’s epistemological orientation: holistic, ecosystemic and complex. The methodological strategy is the Cartography of Knowledge, proposed by Baptista (2014, 2020), inspired by a study by Rolnik (1986), which points to the procedural nature of the qualitative research investigation. Baptista proposes four major investigative trails: Personal Knowledge, Theoretical Knowledge, Production Plant and Intuitive Dimension of Research. The discussion deals with movements of deterritorialization, as proposed by Baptista (2013) and Guattari and Rolnik (1996), which lead to autopoietic productions (Baptista, 2013), in their leisure and tourism practices, considering the subjectivities of this relationship between deterritorialization and autopoiesis in the periphery. What is at stake is the possibility of autopoiesis, of reinventing oneself, in scenarios of segregation with regard to leisure and tourism spaces.
This article aims to discuss the relation Communication, Media Weave and Dance, as devices for activating communicational and existential meanings, for subjects in times of change and in deterritorialization. It is a text that combines transdisciplinary knowledge, in a holistic view, seeking to contribute to the understanding of elements that empower subjects, a crucial aspect in contemporary times, especially in times of great transformations and the reinvention of the processes of deterritorialization. The text is essay-based, resulting from research carried out at the Graduate and Undergraduate level, in Brazil, at three Brazilian universities: University of Caxias do Sul, Federal University of Amazonas and Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in connection with institutions international standards. The Communication and Dance interface is being considered, in this text, as a complex ecosystemic plot, constituted from visible and invisible elements, which constitute species of force fields, which can potentiate the contemporary subject, considered, itself, as a complex subjective plot , in constant mutation and deterritorialization. The mediatization processes are constituted by the strong presence of the communicational media, the means of communication, which are also crucial devices for the reinvention of contemporary subjects, from a media plot of complex narratives.
To counter Japan’s low birth rate, labor shortage, and economic stagnation, their government has adopted policies, such as the ‘womenomics,’ and ‘The Ikumen project,’ so that more women can join the workforce, and men can enjoy a healthier work-life balance. However, this study shows that governmental agencies employ gendered representations in public and warning signs, which contradict such policies. For instance, this study found that most public signs depict women predominantly as the caretakers of children, while men are predominantly seen as suit-wearing ‘salarymen’ who prioritize work over home. Additionally, men are almost always represented as law-breaking individuals, while women are frequently shown as helpless victims. Since such signs carry official government insignias, this study suggests conceptualizing public signs through Foucault’s ‘dividing practices,’ as signs divide society into gendered groups to create social order. Furthermore, this study argues that gendered representations in public signs possibly reflect that the government’s view regarding gendered roles in Japan has not fundamentally changed. Lastly, since the gendered representations of signs are similar to other media representations, this study argues that these representations should be viewed as part of a wider network of ‘systems of representations,’ which repeat the hegemonic gender representations in Japan.
Talking about rape is taboo in Japan, where sexual assaults are rarely reported. Shiori Ito, a #MeToo symbol in Japan, broke the silence on rape by disclosing her victimization experience against the public backlash. This article conducts a feminist critical discourse analysis of popular online responses to Ito’s case in Yahoo’s news comment sections to explore the public witnessing of personal rape stories in Japan. Our findings demonstrate that three different discursive positions—victim-blaming, feminist, and reformist in orientation—negotiate and contest the notions of rape. These footprints are characterized by conflicting attitudes toward Japan’s rape culture and patriarchy. The contradictory interpretations generated by witnessing reveal how the Japanese socio-political context restricts and enables critical possibilities for the #MeToo movement. This study conceptualizes these heterogeneous, fragmented, and multifaceted popular discourses as constituents of the digital footprints of #MeToo. These footprints offer insights into the possibilities and challenges of Japanese gender politics.
This article examines variation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) expansion in four ‘latecomer’ reformers: Germany, England, South Korea and Japan. Taking a comparative approach through an analysis of policy documents, it focuses on the role of ideas as coalition magnets in explaining the more extensive and sustained policy shifts in Germany and Korea, in contrast to the more limited and fragmented reforms in England and Japan. As the comparative literature struggles to explain variation in ECEC expansion, this focus on ideas provides a significant contribution, highlighting why ECEC reform became supported by a broad cross-class coalition in Germany and Korea but not in England or Japan. The theoretical contribution argues that coalition magnets are formed when the polysemic potential of a policy is drawn out by key actors strategically linking it to several problem definitions, which can appeal to diverse political actors and forge lasting consensus for reform.
Military recruitment strategies continue to evolve in line with developments in broader socio-political contexts. In what can be seen as a fairly recent development, both men and women are now central to recruitment campaigns. Such changes can be viewed as signalling a shift towards equality in military forces. Critics argue, however, that changes in this respect are superficial and serve to mask the prevailing masculine dominance in the military. Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, I examine the representation of service personnel in a recently published recruitment brochure produced by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. The primary focus, however, is on how female personnel are depicted. The findings reveal that the recruitment efforts attempt to convey that the Japanese military promotes equality. Female and male service members are shown performing roles interchangeably. However, contradictions are also evident and in some instances clear distinctions are made along gendered lines. The military is also discursively constructed as an institution of care, which supports female personnel and enables them to achieve personal and career success. The first contribution the study makes is to research on multimodal texts which are used for political communication. Secondly, it enhances critical scholarship on military recruitment strategies.
Este artículo analiza y clasifica las críticas que, desde los años noventa, se dirigen hacia productos kawaii («mono», «precioso») y a las jóvenes japonesas que los consumen. Se constata que esas críticas, dentro del país y desde el extranjero, obedecen a motivaciones opuestas. Las «formaciones discursivas» (Foucault, 2006) que han destacado por su causticidad hacia lo kawaii son: a) desde Japón, el discurso social hegemónico que prescribe roles de género y conductas adecuadas; b) internacionalmente, el tecnorientalismo (Morley y Robins, 1995), que, tras el colapso de la burbuja inmobiliaria en Japón (1990) y la equiparación del país con otras economías de capitalismo avanzado de escaso crecimiento anual, deja de presentar a Japón como rival por la modernidad. El tecnorientalismo reciente ridiculiza el modelo de modernidad imperante en Japón, con atención a sus características posmodernas de amnesia y consumismo aparentemente indiscriminado. Así mismo, se identifican solapamientos y divergencias en ambas posiciones reprobatorias, en sus representaciones de las prácticas de las consumidoras, conforme a la «función enunciativa» (Foucault, 2006) que formule la crítica hacia lo kawaii. El archivo discursivo de ambas formaciones es (re)enunciado regularmente y, mientras la estética kawaii permanezca ubicua en Japón, se prevé que esas críticas continúen con transformaciones.
In the decades ahead, the populations of many Asia Pacific region countries will undergo the fastest and most extensive aging on the planet. Japan is the global frontrunner amongst countries with aging populations and has been striving to prevent its labor force from dwindling away. This chapter presents an in-depth examination of the key strategies that the Japanese have adopted in this endeavor. For each strategy, the specific tools used to implement the strategy and the effectiveness of those tools is assessed. In doing so, the key factors undermining the success of each strategy are identified and suggestions on how to proceed are provided.
In this chapter, I explore the possibility of legal change to tackle sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is a common problem in Japanese politics that many women politicians acknowledge as affecting them or someone they know. It is a problem that is so widespread and normalised that articulating it as a problem it is a radical act. Women politicians, like women working in all sectors in Japan, learn to accommodate harassment because speaking out produces mostly negative outcomes, and because legal infrastructure to tackle the problem is inadequate. I anticipate the potential in legislation (existing and amended) to stamp out sexual harassment, but with the caveat that it must be accompanied, and propelled and sustained by, the eradication of cultural inequality of men and women.
The existing research on Japanese security focuses mainly on the nation state and conceives of male elites as the key bearers of relevant knowledge about the phenomenon. This article problematizes these biases by zeroing in on women’s everyday-oriented perspectives, which fall outside the scope of security politics as traditionally conceived. More specifically, it analyzes the rich material provided by a survey of the members of three major Japanese women’s organizations, using a mixed-method approach premised on statistical methods and qualitative content analysis. The results show that the Japanese women in our sample accommodate and reproduce content from dominant elite views about security and insecurity. However, they also challenge and at times ignore these perspectives by identifying a host of other insecurities as more pressing in their daily lives, notably those related to environmental degradation and Japan’s political development.
This article draws on Gramsci’s theory of passive revolution to explore the second tenure of Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzō from 2012 to 2020. It sees the high degree of political stability that Abe achieved as a contrast to the preceding two decades of Japanese politics and asks what accounts for Abe’s success in restoring Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) dominance in an era of enduring economic and social crisis. The article argues that Abe executed a strategy of passive revolution that incorporated two “faces”: an “outward” face oriented around consent and an “inward” face rooted in coercion. The former involved economic policies (in particular “Abenomics”) designed to appear capable of resolving chronic economic stagnation, growing inequality and other social and economic problems, restoring popular support for the LDP without undermining conditions for capital accumulation or empowering subaltern classes. In contrast, the latter involved various low-profile security and administrative policies that enabled the Abe government to dramatically increase its power while silencing or disarming potential rivals and critics. The article sees this two-sided strategy of passive revolution as effective in restoring LDP dominance but unlikely to prove the basis for a more expansive hegemony or a resolution to Japan’s organic crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a devastating disaster for all inhabitants of the earth. All segments of human life on earth, without exception of education. Many countries have decided to close schools, colleges and universities, including Indonesia. The crisis really came, governments in any part of the world and Indonesia government had to make a hard decision closed schools for reduced people's contact massively and to save their lives. There have impacts on the sustainability of education caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.. Likewise with the psychological problems of the children of students who accustomed to learning face to face with their teachers in the classroom, learning by online it could increase bored, stress, depressions for the students.
Keyword: pandemic COVID 19, changes, educations system
Acknowledging that today’s society’s responses to major
social challenges must be informed by an improved
understanding of human perceptions, responses, different
think tanks or academic bodies encourage Multidisciplinary
thinking. They want a Multidisciplinary approach as an
an integral part of various programs, research groups, centers,
Book Multidisciplinary issues in Social Science Research is an International Trends, it included varied knowledge discipline with the varied shape of analysis for the research.
In this chapter, we focus on the status of women’s representation in Japan at national and local levels of government, notably by tracing women’s numerical presence or descriptive representation (Pitkin in The concept of representation. Atherton Press, New York, NY, 1967) in the postwar period. We discuss how gender bias against women manifests through micro and macro, socio-cultural and institutional, contexts of local and national politics, and, notably, the pervasive impact and hegemony of elite men’s social and political capital within electoral political and political party recruitment strategies. In particular, we explore the key gatekeeping mechanisms restricting women’s baseline access to political leadership and the absence of an equal playing field in Japanese politics. We discuss recent feminist activism in favor of diversifying decision-making within Japan and propose next steps for expanding the windows of opportunity for women’s political leadership.
In Japan, the reason why there are few women leadership role models is that the employment system and the social schemes accept this situation. Although an increasing number of companies have proclaimed gender equality, the reality is that many companies have superficial systems and policies on their books that have not been utilized in practice. The employment system has a significant impact on women in the workforce. It is critical to improve the employment system to enhance gender equality in the labor market. In this chapter, we examine the current situation of the employment system and the ways in which women are impacted by the system from a leadership development perspective based on the literature. More specifically, we discuss the barriers and challenges focusing on two areas. One is the traditional membership form that is widely used in Japan compared with the job form commonly used in Europe and U.S. Another is the two-career track employment system: sogo-shoku (promotion track) and ippan-shoku (non-promotion track), with the majority of women choosing the later track that restricts their opportunity to pursue their career and promotion. We discuss women’s career choice as hi-seisyainn (non-regular employee, including contract or part-time positions) with limited promotion opportunities as well. Considering these systems’ perspectives, this chapter concludes with implications for future practice and research, including proposed strategies for systems’ reforms.
In this chapter, we clarify the barriers faced by Japanese women hindering them from being in leadership positions in organizations by comparing Japan to four OECD countries: the United States, France, Germany, and Finland. Since the Global Gender Gap Index was introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006, many countries have generated significant improvement on having women in the workplace. However, in terms of Japan, in spite of the voices for adopting more women leaders that have been increasing and drawing attention to the percentage of women in leadership positions, Japan still remains behind, ranking 121st of 153 in the index in 2020; Finland was 3rd, Germany 10th, France 15th, and the United States 53rd. In this chapter, I review literature focusing on a historical overview of women’s leadership development in organizations in the five countries and discuss: (1) common grounds and differentiation of women in leadership positions; (2) visible and invisible obstacles to access equal opportunities in order to be promoted; and (3) possible reasons why these differences exist. I conclude with possible steps that could overcome the identified barriers and why Japan is so far behind.
As the Japan Self-Defense Forces becomes ‘closer’ to everyday people, discourses surrounding military masculinities and femininities shift. This paper takes a ‘curious feminist’ approach to the shifting significance of the JSDF and asks the question, ‘What can the changing JSDF tell us about its relationship with women?’ I explore representations of women and men in three JSDF-related publications – a matchmaking website that caters to male soldiers and women civilians, Jieitai Premium Club; a popular manga series drawn by a woman married to a JSDF man, Totsugeki Jiekan Zuma; and the monthly JSDF publication, Mamor – and suggest that despite the ostensible pursuit of gender equality within the JSDF as evidenced in the increased recruitment of women, and the promoting of women to higher ranks, women continue to be imagined as ‘helpmates’, just as they were during Japan’s modernization process. They are discursively constructed as helpmates to men as wives and other female companions, and in being so constructed, become (un/conscious) supporters of the JSDF and thus helpmates to the state.
Japan’s gender gap in housework—the second largest in the OECD countries—has come sharp focus with its female employment on the rise. Why are women and men in Japan still struggling to share housework? This article examines this question, analysing relatively newly emerged representations of ‘kaji-hara’. The Japanese neologism ‘kaji-hara’—a shortened form of the phrase ‘housework harassment’—has garnered much public attention, since Japan’s leading home builder Asahi Kasei Homes Corporation (AKHC) launched its ‘Wives’ Housework Harassment’ campaign in 2014. The campaign conveyed a contentious message—that is, it is not husbands, but actually wives, who act as a bottleneck to gender equality in housework. This received a negative backlash, ultimately leading to the phenomenon of what I label here as the ‘kaji-hara debates’. Based upon analysis of AKHC’s campaign ads, its online survey results, literature and media coverage that inform the kaji-hara debates, this article shows the operation of the ‘gendering of housework’, by which housework is gendered and produces gender itself, thereby perpetuating the housework gender gap in the society. It argues that AKHC’s campaign constitutes the gendering of housework, as it represents, assumes and commercialises housework as ‘women’s primary responsibility’ while simultaneously promoting men’s domesticity.
This article examines sexual harassment that has occurred in the interconnected worlds of media and politics in Japan in the context of the global (mostly Western) #MeToo movement. It argues that this harassment by male political leaders constitutes a pattern of sexual harassment and should not be seen simply as individual incidents that exist in isolation from each other. This pattern occurs within a cultural context that discourages speaking out about individual grievances—a particularly noxious cultural norm for women in a patriarchal society. The naming of this pattern of sexual harassment is important to address Violence Against Women in Politics, a problem facing women in politics around the world, including Japan. The public and media outrage directed at individual sexist statements made by male politicians often dissipates after some time has passed, only to emerge again after the next sexist incident makes headlines. By establishing this as a pattern of sexual harassment, I aim to make visible the problem of sexual harassment as a systemic problem facing all women working in politics or in close proximity to politicians in Japan.
The present paper discusses the concept of Japanese womenomics and the dilemma Japanese women are facing regarding participation in the workforce. The author argues that, while the number of working women is undoubtedly greater now than ever before, vertical segregation and conservative attitudes of employers, as well as obsolete tax legislation aimed at keeping women out of regular employment have resulted in large numbers of women staying out of the labor force. The article presents the two options Japanese women have: to work, most often in non-regular jobs, with no benefits or prospects of advancement, or to stay away from work (temporarily or permanently) and become full time wives and mothers. The author questions the possibility that Abe’s ambitious targets be attained without dismantling the obsolete system of gendered employment and in the absence of measures that genuinely protect and encourage a wider participation of women to the economic revival of the country.
Business now plays an increasingly prominent role in development. While the implicit links between private actors and international development institutions have been widely debated, the explicit role of financial corporations in shaping official development policy has been less well documented. We employ a feminist Marxian analysis to examine the material and discursive landscape of the 2012 World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development. Its exclusive focus on gender equality as ‘smart economics’, and the central role accorded to leading financial corporations like Goldman Sachs in the formulation of the key World Bank recommendations enable us to explore the changing landscape of the neoliberal corporatisation of development. We argue, first, that the apolitical and ahistorical representation of gender and gender equality in the wdr serves to normalise spaces of informality and insecurity, thereby expunging neoliberal-led capitalist relations of exploitation and domination, which characterise the social context in which many women in the global South live. Second, the wdr represents the interest of corporations in transforming the formerly excluded segments of the South (women) into consumers and entrepreneurs. The wdr thus represents an attempt by the World Bank and its ‘partners’ to deepen and consolidate the fundamental values and tenets of capitalist interests.
This wide-ranging and innovative collection of essays addresses the Japanese dimension of one of the major sociological issues of our time: the nature of socio-economic modernisation and the emergence or otherwise of 'post-modern' industrial society. The rise to economic supremacy of post-war Japan constitutes an enormous challenge to that western orthodoxy which posits an essentially unilinear process of modernisation from the seventeenth century to the present day in which national and regional diversity has been eroded by the gradual social convergence of the major industrial powers. How does a society of contrasting social and cultural traditions fit within this pattern? Can one sensibly speak of Japanese society as 'modern' when such usage is effectively defined by other, western, presuppositions? In this volume an international team of contributors assesses these questions and investigates the real impact of modernisation upon the Japanese themselves.
Japan combines demographic challenges of decreasing childbirths and an ageing population, yet political unwillingness to use immigration to ease labour market and caregiving shortages. Paying attention to gender, diversity, and inclusion would seem to be a ?rational? political choice. Although Prime Minister Abe (Abe II) understands the need to appear to be responding to Japanese women qua equal citizens, women remain more an ?object? of LDP policy than a substantive beneficiary. To improve his image, Abe has incorporated ?Womenomics? into his strategy of economic revitalisation; the result has been a rather incoherent blend of ?equal participation? and ?women?s utilisation?. In 2016, the dearth of diversity and anti-feminist sentiment within Japanese politics continues to be mirrored in both passive and active ways within the discursive and institutional political climate, including within academia. It is largely premature to assume a shared normative or scientific commitment to inclusion and diversity in Japan. Japanese Political Science (JPS) is no exception, and this has obvious implications for what constitutes a ?serious? political issue worthy of study, what gets funded, who gets hired, and the extent to which critical debates within feminist political science (FSP) on gender, race, and diversity are taken seriously. In this article, I offer a preliminary evaluation of JPS in light of three indicators: the under-representation of women in Japanese academia generally and political science specifically; the access of FPS to large-scale government funding grants (2003?2013) and its impact on the discipline; and recent efforts by feminist political scientists in Tokyo to create a ?home? for debates on gender, diversity, and political representation. I conclude with a hopeful expectation that increasing numbers of political scientists in Japan will begin to genuinely problematise the dearth of diversity in Japanese politics and to approach this fundamental puzzle of Japanese democratisation with the intellectual curiosity that it deserves.
While the workplace custom of working long hours has been known to exacerbate gender inequality, few have investigated the organizational mechanisms by which long working hours translate into and reinforce the power and status differences between men and women in the workplace. Drawing on 64 in-depth interviews with workers at financial and cosmetics companies in Japan, this article examines three circumstances in which a culture of long working hours is disadvantageous for women workers, and the consequences of those circumstances: (a) managers in Japanese firms, reinforcing gender stereotypes, prioritize work over personal and family lives; (b) non–career-track women experience depressed aspirations in relation to long working hours and young women express a wish to opt out due to the incompatibility of work with family life; and (c) workers who are mothers deal with extra unpaid family work, stress such as guilt from leaving work early, salary reduction and concerns over their limited chances for promotion. The article argues that the norm of working long hours not only exacerbates the structural inequality of gender but also shapes employed women's career paths into the dichotomized patterns of either emulating workplace masculinity or opting out.
While the rise of non-regular women workers in Japanese firms drew much attention, little attention has been paid to employment barriers that regular women workers continue to face in Japanese firms today. Based on in-depth interviews with 64 men and women workers, this article examines gender inequality in Japanese firms in which women’s structural power is extremely low. Using the analytical framework of organizational masculinity, it explores organizational processes by which vertical sex segregation is legitimized by workplace culture. The article concludes with suggestions for improving the prospects for women’s employment in Japanese firms.
Compiling data from several government surveys, this article identifies key social indicators of economic security associated
with nonstandard employment in Japan. Empirical trends of nonstandard employment are contextualized in the development of
Japanese coordinated capitalism from the economic boom during the 1960s through the recession of the 1990s to the turn of
the 21st Century. A case study of Japan, with its high relative and absolute numbers of nonstandard workers, can reveal what
happens to economic security when neoliberalism increasingly encroaches on a highly regulated employment relations system.
The dramatic increase of nonstandard employment, particularly among women, is rooted in the design of the institutional architecture
supporting pillars of the Japanese employment system and its mode of regulation. Based on interviews and a review of labour
laws, the article chronicles regulatory reform aimed at stimulating the growth of nonstandard employment as a cheap source
of labor with few benefits and limited employment protections. The final section concludes with a proposal for reframing social
policies to advance economic security in Japan.
‘Minkan Kyūyō Jittai Tōkei Chōsa’ (Statistical Survey of Private Sector Salaries)
- National Tax Agency
‘Danjo Rōdōsha no Shigotojō no Sakaiketsu wo Mezasu Torikumi ni Saikō 30 Manen Josei’ (Maximum 300 Thousand Yen Subsidy for Measures That Aim to Eliminate Gender Labour Gap)
- Rōdō Kijun Kōhō
‘Zenkoku Feminisuto Giin Renmei 20Shūnen Kinen Semināru Apīru’ (Alliance of Feminist Representatives 20 Year Anniversary Seminar Appeal)
- Femiren
‘The Glass Ceiling Index’
- The Economist