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For years Japan’s government has been touting a goal to increase the number of women in senior jobs, both in the private and public sectors. In 2003, then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed the goal of having 30% women in leadership roles by 2020. Current prime minister Shinzo Abe seized on the target, and it’s been a key feature of his “Abenomics” plans to grow the economy.
Meanwhile, though, women have continued to be held back by Japan’s deeply sexist culture. Last week, the government’s gender equality bureau caved in to reality and adjusted the goal to a more realistic 7% by 2021.
There were early signs that 30% goal might be too ambitious. In April 2014 Japan’s labor ministry promised to pay firms to promote women to senior jobs. By September of this year, it admitted that not one company took up the offer. Many executives, meanwhile, openly doubted the goal could be met. Among them was Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn (one of the more progressive executives in Japan), who last summer said that 10% of top jobs filled by women by the end of March 2017 was a more realistic goal for his company. And as of this summer, women held just 3.1% of the board seats (paywall) among Japan’s 30 largest companies.
There were early signs that 30% goal might be too ambitious. In April 2014 Japan’s labor ministry promised to pay firms to promote women to senior jobs. By September of this year, it admitted that not one company took up the offer.
inflames wrote:The easiest way to solve the problem would just be to require companies to have female managers and to pay some tax penalty otherwise (this is already done for the disabled, although just in general employment). Companies will bitch and moan but it'll get done. Plus what's the worst that could happen? Incompetent managers in Japanese companies?
Grumpy Gramps wrote:And, honestly, if you could just put your feet on the table and have your money brought to you by your own salariman pwned by you, what would you want a bloody job for? In a bloody J-company?
inflames wrote:The easiest way to solve the problem would just be to require companies to have female managers and to pay some tax penalty otherwise (this is already done for the disabled, although just in general employment). Companies will bitch and moan but it'll get done.
inflames wrote:Plus what's the worst that could happen? Incompetent managers in Japanese companies?
American Oyaji wrote:The problem is Japanese women opting out and WHY they are opting out.
It's the CULTURE of forcing Japanese women out after they reach a certain age or get pregnant.
THAT is what must be attacked and a penalizing of companies that do this. Anything else is just a sop to the idea of equality or progress.
wagyl wrote:It can be a double edged sword. Speak frankly with women in the Nordic countries and you will find many of them are not entirely happy that they feel forced to participate in the workforce. Sure, there is universal childcare but not everyone wants to deliver their children up to strangers in an institution. It is not just the economic pressure of practically requiring two incomes to raise a family in those countries, there is also a societal pressure: a stay-at-home mother there is regarded much like a stay-at-home father in other countries. Lazy shits.
The unresolved and maybe unresolvable issue here is providing the workforce, male and female, with choice, while not rewarding or punishing those who make one choice or another.
Samurai_Jerk wrote: I do think people need to give up on the idea they can "have it all."
Takechanpoo wrote:if i were woman, i would select a superior sperm in sperm bank and soon leave the baby in the facility just after finishing to produce and also leave all of the rearing him/her to the professional rearers until the baby become middle teen.
kurogane wrote:Actually getting around to understanding how the internet can work for work wouldn't hurt either. Maybe I should send out a fax circular outlining some proposals? Most people still have their pocket bells linked to their fax numbers, surely?
PS what did We used to call a "pocket bell".............??? .........................................................................................got it. Pager.
Samurai_Jerk wrote:inflames wrote:The easiest way to solve the problem would just be to require companies to have female managers and to pay some tax penalty otherwise (this is already done for the disabled, although just in general employment). Companies will bitch and moan but it'll get done. Plus what's the worst that could happen? Incompetent managers in Japanese companies?
That's not going to help if most women aren't looking for careers. Forget about management. Some companies have been trying really hard to increase the % of women in the workforce for years to the point of giving female candidates preference and putting a moratorium on hiring men in certain roles but they haven't been able hit their goals.
inflames wrote:Samurai_Jerk wrote:inflames wrote:The easiest way to solve the problem would just be to require companies to have female managers and to pay some tax penalty otherwise (this is already done for the disabled, although just in general employment). Companies will bitch and moan but it'll get done. Plus what's the worst that could happen? Incompetent managers in Japanese companies?
That's not going to help if most women aren't looking for careers. Forget about management. Some companies have been trying really hard to increase the % of women in the workforce for years to the point of giving female candidates preference and putting a moratorium on hiring men in certain roles but they haven't been able hit their goals.
When most women aren't looking for careers, very few things will help them.
I'm an engineer (by training) as is my mother. When I was in university, my basic chemistry professor was an assistant dean who had been teaching there since the early 60s. One day he was talking to us and said in the 60s and 70s, he would have teams answer chemistry questions, and the teams would be sorted by gender (3 or 4 women against 25 men), but that the women always won, as the requirements for a woman to be admitted to an engineering program were much higher than men - engineering was men's work, so women had to prove they really knew their stuff.
I see Japan and I have no qualms saying the situation is almost the same - if you're a woman, the odds are simply stacked against you. Setting up a quota (or some other minimum requirements) would force companies to take some action to address their issues (which cause women to quit).
matsuki wrote:Situation is the same as in J-universities are pumping out skilled engineers? Female or not, I think engineering here is one field that's so in demand that there aren't the usual odds stacked against them.
Takechanpoo wrote:in addition to their passiveness and high tendency of risk avoidance, the reason why most of j-women are not interested in succeeding in career woman is that they grew up to see their mother and the generations women enjoying an easygoing life as a full-time housewife while driving their husband a no-life hardworking slave. in fact the approx 60 % or more(i think)of younger j-women still think want to become a full-time housewife.
matsuki wrote:always busy, housewife, who doesn't have much of a life besides watching dramas and the local gossip.
Samurai_Jerk wrote:matsuki wrote:always busy, housewife, who doesn't have much of a life besides watching dramas and the local gossip.
Wouldn't someone who's always busy have no time for TV and gossip?
wagyl wrote:The foreign guys just moan about their life and how they are better citizens than the locals online. That is better than gossiping in person.
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