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Report: Japan lags behind in gender equality in the workplace. Way behind.

March 8, 2007
By Ken Worsley


With today being International Women’s Day, Grant Thornton International published a report detailing its findings of a study into the gender gap between men and women in executive positions. Japan observers will hardly be surprised that Japan ranked last out of all nations surveyed.

The Philippines lead the way with 97% of companies reporting having women in senior management positions, with mainland China following at 91%. The poll covered 7,000 companies in 32 nations.

Generally, Asian companies were found to have more women working in executive positions than their European or North American counterparts, with Japan standing out as a glaring exception, having only 25% of companies report women serving in executive positions. Alison Wong, partner of specialist advisory services at Grant Thornton, said, “Obviously Japan is unique in the cultural perception about women in business and women’s role in the family as compared with other parts of Asia.”

We’re not sure how to take the word ‘unique’ in that sentence, but it’s most likely not meant to be complimentary. Some other ways in which Japan is ‘unique’ in its treatment of female workers:

  • The average Japanese women working full-time earns 44% of what the average Japanese man working full-time does.
  • Although the number of women working has increased since 1991, Japan currently has a record high 8 million part-time workers, of whom about 90% are women.
  • Last year, a UN survey found that 10.7% of senior corporate and political positions were held by women.

The question is: With a low birthrate, a now-declining population, an unofficial policy of no immigration and corporate-mandated retirement ages still generally set at 60 years of age, is anyone at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare awake?

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Comments

2 Responses to “Report: Japan lags behind in gender equality in the workplace. Way behind.”

  1. John S on March 9th, 2007 3:23 am

    Although the number of women working has increased since 1991, Japan currently has a record high 8 million part-time workers, of whom about 90% are women.

    You so half-assed that. Come on man, there’s much more to it than that! The issue isn’t that more women went and got part-time jobs, but that those jobs are crummy. They pay badly, and more importantly, don’t pay bonuses. It’s even been alleged that they often don’t pay overtime! With wages declining over the past few years (ok, up 0.1% last year, but down eight years before that), but bonuses hitting all-time highs while the number of part-time workers hits all-time highs, it’s obvious what’s happening…

  2. Ken on March 9th, 2007 4:58 pm

    Well John, I didn’t really flesh it out, that’s true. The problem is that this is where working women have been relegated to. It’s good for industry but bad for the people. Sounds familiar.

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