UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
Women in the Japanese
Workplace
Asian Studies Senior Project
Jane Fancher
2/24/2010
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The purpose of this paper is to better understand the unique situations that Japanese
women face in the modern workplace, and why there are significantly different opportunities in
the Japanese workplace for men than for women. It aims relate the reasons behind Japan’s
resistance to women in authority roles in the corporate world. The method is to examine the
cultural reasons for Japanese gender roles through traditional practices, the commonly held
Japanese ideologies about women, and popular media images of Japanese womanhood. The
paper will focus on the aspects of Japanese culture, such as group mentality, that both created the
current Japanese business environment and currently function to reinforce patriarchy.
Subsequently, it will examine the history of feminism in Japan the current issues of Women’s
Rights affecting the female employment situation. It is important to be aware of the ways in
which the Japanese business environment bars women from certain types of positions and forces
them into others based upon culturally supported gender roles. These lead to biased hiring and
promoting practices in many Japanese companies including the unique way that Japan defines
full-time and part-time work or regular and non-regular employees. Essentially the Japanese
business practices attempt to exploit female workers by keeping them in low paying, short-term
clerical positions with no chance of promotion. After a few years of this dead-end career path
they are expected to marry and retire, and when they do not they are exposed to social ridicule
and sometimes even forced to retire. In the long run this results in female workers as wasted
resources, and limits the productivity of half of Japan’s workforce. This will continue with an
analysis of employment types and wages across genders and an examination of the current
Japanese unemployment issues. The paper will conclude with recommendations for Japan’s
progress as world economy which utilizes its workforce to the utmost. As The Japanese Ministry
of Economy, Trade, and Industry published in its 2003 report on women in business, “the
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motivations for firms to fully utilize women are numerous, including improving brand image
(improve their product image or employ talented women), diversifying human resources,
fulfilling the firm’s social responsibilities, and preparing from a long-term perspective for the
future shrinkage of the labor pool resulting from Japan’s declining birthrate and ageing society”
(Report of the Study Group on Gender Equality).
How Group Mentality Reinforces Patriarchy in the Japanese Business Environment
Japan is unique amongst other Asian countries as an affluent liberal democratic society,
and yet it differs in many ways from other First World countries in its institutions and social
ideals. Japanese society is all about harmony, and this means that the group’s needs always take
precedence over the individual’s needs. From an early age, Japanese society teaches children not
to cause trouble over personal worries, and to work for the good of the group. These groups
include both larger societies such as a company and micro societies such as a family. Any person
who begins to study Japanese will soon find that there are important hierarchies within Japanese
culture that reveal themselves through language. To the purpose of achieving harmony, there are
specific hierarchies and roles within any given group.
The reflection of cultural hierarchies in the Japanese language is displayed most simply
through the referential terms for “others” in Japanese society. There are very few pronouns in the
Japanese language for two reasons. The first is that Japanese sentences often exclude a subject
where it is assumed. The second is that Japanese consider it rather rude to use the pronoun for
you, “anata,” (あなた)usually Japanese prefer to refer to others by their names rather than
pronouns. When Japanese use a name it is almost always followed by an honorific post-fix, and
this honorific is dependent upon the age, sex, and social relationship of the person to the speaker.
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The basic form is to refer to a person by their family name with the addition of the post-fix
“san”(さん). Obviously, one refers more formally to an adult than to a child, but consistent with
the idea that everyone in the group has a position even a child is given an honorific. A male child
is given the post-fix “kun” (くん) while the female is given the post-fix “chan” (ちゃん). These
honorifics also depend on the groups to which a person belongs. This hierarchy continues even
within families, in many situations husbands and wives refer to their spouse by last name-san.
There are different terms used between a younger sibling and an older sibling when referring to
their brother or sister. The importance of all these titles is to display the significance of roles
within a given group and how one’s role within the group establishes one’s identity.
The Japanese term for family is “ie” (家) a term that is most similar to the English word
house and encompasses both the meanings of a building a family lives in and the slightly more
archaic meaning of an ancestral family, as in the House of Windsor (Asia Case Studies 154).
This idea of a family including the ancestry is very real in a modern Japanese home. Unlike the
Western concept of nuclear family, the Japanese family includes not only the current head of the
family and heirs but also the generations past. Historically speaking a person’s social status
derived from their “ie” and the role they fulfilled within that group, and in modern Japan some of
this concept of responsibility to the family remains. The Japanese often consider the actions of an
individual inseparable from the group in which they are a part. For these reasons, Japanese
children learn early on to work as a functioning part of the group and to concern themselves
more with their responsibilities to the group than to their individual personal desires. The person
who focuses on their own happiness troubles the group, and this sort of behavior results in the
following proverb: “the nail that sticks up will be hammered down.” ( deru kui wa utareru 出る
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杭は打たれる). Japanese take this group family mentality into every part of their life, and it is
echoed in offices and even groups of friends.
The office environment has similarities to the family group, there is a hierarchy based on
age and role within the group. As in any business environment there is a basic structure of
managers, supervisors, and various under workers, but within a Japanese office there are further
hierarchies even amongst colleagues. In a Japanese office the employee who has been in their
current position for some time, the 先輩“senpai,” receives quite a bit of respect from the 後輩
“kouhai,” an employee who has been in a position for less time, even if they perform the same
job. The senpai usually mentors and trains their kouhai, and due to the nature of Japanese
lifetime employment the relationships are generally long lasting. Other divisions within the
Japanese workplace include fulltime versus part-time workers and male versus female roles. The
Japanese culture has defined the nature of men as complimentary to that of women. Men are
positive, aggressive, and extroverted while women are private, submissive, and introverted. The
next step in this ideology is that men and women are “naturally” suited to different tasks, and
specifically that women are “naturally” suited to housework and to submissive positions in the
business as well. Women are considered to be better at creating “relaxation and harmony…
simply because of their biological sex and social gender,” (Asia Case Studies 140) thus they are
often expected to take care of domestic chores in the office environment. Just like the family
group, the interests of the office group take precedence over those of the individual worker. As
peace is in the interest of the office most Japanese do not attempt to change the entrenched ideals.
In any group within Japanese society there are specific roles which the members are
expected to fulfill. Japanese society expects men and women to fulfill separate and somewhat
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stereotyped roles. Women who do work are still expected to fulfill roles that are extensions of
domesticity, such as cooking or cleaning, care giving roles as teachers of children or nurses, or
submissive office positions as secretaries. For women the ideal role within a group is that of a
“good wife wise mother,” an ideology requiring women to master domestic skills and be morally
and intellectually adept in order to raise good children for the betterment of the nation. A
woman’s power in the family structure arises from her control of finances and her emotional
connection with her children. The housewife generally takes household expenses out of her
husband’s paycheck and then gives her spouse an allowance. As Japanese children spend the
majority of their time outside of school with their mother and receive most of their support and
care from their mothers, they often develop much closer emotional relationships with their
mothers than with their fathers. Typically, fathers spend most of their time at either the office or
engaging in bonding activities with colleagues. So, Japanese housewives tend to associate their
own sense of worth through their husband’s job and their children’s successes. However, there
has been a marked increase amongst the younger generation of fathers being more involved in
children’s lives and more mothers seeking at least part-time work outside the home.
Culture is not static; it constantly evolves and changes over time. What is natural to one
group may seem improbable to their descendants. The Japanese family continues to evolve, as
can be seen reflected in the changes in male and female roles within the house, and changing
priorities amongst the younger generation. The traditions discussed so far continue to influence
the culture of modern Japan, but they are merely one part of the equation of various influences
upon the consciousness of Japanese society. As a clear sign of social change, the group mentality,
which is so central to Japanese culture, is somewhat softer in recent generations. Social ideas
about women are also beginning to modify as more and more Japanese women choose careers
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over family. As social ideas about women change perhaps their work environment will similarly
evolve. Currently though, the workplace remains somewhat hostile for the Japanese woman.
As the ideal does not include being a part of the workforce, women in Japan face a
cultural discouragement from pursuing careers. Operating under this discriminatory ideology
companies refuse them equal working rights, discourage female upward mobility, and often
bypass qualified candidates when hiring. According to the Japanese Statistical Yearbook in 2007
around 75% of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were employed, between the ages of 25
and 40 this number dipped to nearly 60%, and then rose again to 75% between 45 and the age of
retirement creating an m shaped graph. Seemingly, about 15% of women are choosing to be
unemployed during their child rearing years. Despite the fact that the majority of Japanese
women continue to hold jobs through the ages of 25 to 40, there exists a stereotype that all
women will follow this 15% and retire during their childbearing years. Under the outdated
assumption that after only a few years of work women will subsequently retire to get married
and/or have children, companies almost always hire women into part-time positions rather than
full-time positions. While Japan has passed an Equal Employment Opportunity Law, this law has
not done much to change the situation of working women in Japan. It has given them a legal
outlet if they are willing to come forward about their mistreatment, but in a society that holds
that standing out is shamefully selfish such an action is unlikely in most cases. The clearest sign
that men and women remain unequal in Japanese society is that despite a constitution that
includes equal rights and a labor force that is 40% female, there are almost no women in
leadership positions whether in business or politics. This image is somewhat problematic for
Japan as a global business economy, as it is unfavorable to the social beliefs of many other First
World Nations.
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“Good Wife, Wise Mother” Ideologies about Women in Japan
Traditionally Japanese women were “taught to follow their parent (father) when they are
young, their husband when they are married, and their child (eldest son) when they get old”
(Iwasawa 205). In the late 1800’s the Meiji Restoration was the source of enormous change in
the political and social structure of Japanese society, and among those changes were
improvements in the legal status of women. While they were not given true equality with men,
“The trafficking in women was restricted. Wives were allowed to request a divorce. Elementary
education was made compulsory for both boys and girls” (Iwasawa 205). The difference between
their legal status and true equality lies in the prevalent cultural ideologies about women. Around
the same time, the ideology of “Good Wife, Wise Mother” became popular in Japan as the ideal
life goal for women (Sievers 22). The highest goal any woman could hope to attain was to be a
good wife and a wise mother. Being a good wife meant never questioning her husband and
mastering the domestic skills necessary to keep a proper home, such as cooking, sewing, and
managing a house. The greatest service she could do for her nation was to fulfill her civic duty to
raise children who would become useful members of society. Girls were educated alongside boys
in morals, reading, writing, and arithmetic in order that they could be “wise mothers” capable of
raising intelligent children.
During World War II, with the increased need for workers, women joined the industrial
workforce and the “Good Wife, Wise Mother” ideal stretched to include supporting the war
effort in any way possible. Japan’s defeat brought about many democratic changes and further
improved women’s legal status in Japan by giving them legal equality and the right to vote
(Iwasawa 205-6). After the war, the typical career for a woman changed from industrial worker
to office lady, a job she was expected to work for only a few years until she married and became
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a permanent housewife. So the “Good Wife, Wise Mother” ideal did not change but merely
postponed itself until after a short career as an Office Lady. This stereotype remained plausible
until the bubble economy burst in 1990 as more and more homes were unable to subside on a
single income.
The Office Lady is an important part of modern Japanese culture, and within this
stereotypical role there are several different ideologies at play. The first is the ideal, that a young
woman will start at an entry-level job in a company, meet a young man, preferably within the
office, marry, and retire to raise children and keep house. The Japanese often refer to such young
women as Office Flowers, useful for beautifying the atmosphere and equally short lived in the
office. They provide mostly secretarial tasks such as filing, answering phones, and serving tea.
An offshoot of this stereotype is that of the permanent Office Lady; women are expected to
marry and retire, so there are no provisions for promoting them up through corporate structure,
and if one remains unmarried they are stuck in these secretarial positions. “In fact, companies
retain women in secretarial positions even if they do not get married and continue working.
Further, companies have even forced women to resign because women are not expected to
assume any responsibility beyond that of an OL” (Kitamura 69).
The permanent Office Lady is a pitiable figure in the Japanese culture who is
synonymous with the term old maid, as seen in the 2005 drama Anego (アネゴ).1 Anego means
older sister and refers to the way in which the main character is much older than most of her
coworkers and therefore treats them with a sort of maternal care. The main character is a thirtyyear-old woman who works hard and is successful in her job, but she is pitied by her coworkers
for her single status, and the obvious belief is that she has given up a chance at having a
1
Anego. Nippon Television Network(NTV). 2005.
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relationship or a family (read happiness) by pursuing her career. The mindset that a woman must
either choose a career or a relationship is echoed again and again in Japanese pop-culture in
shows like Supply2 (サプリ), Kimi wa Petto3 (きみはペット), and Ohitorisama4 (おひとりさ
ま). These and other television shows all feature the stereotype of a woman who chooses to
pursue her career as highly intelligent but emotionally cold and socially inept. The unhappiness
of these women, even when financially successful, and their inability to have lasting
relationships reinforces the patriarchal ideology that women should not be in the workplace.
Another stereotypical role for women in Japanese society is that of the overzealous
mother or "Kyōiku Mama" (教育ママ) who pushes her child to perform in school. As these
women have retired from outside work, they place all of their self worth in their children’s and
husband’s success. The Japanese education system is a series of competitive tests, which
separate the elite, beginning with kindergarten and continuing to separate those with higher skills
at the junior high and then senior high level as well. Going to a good high school can lead to a
good college if one is able to do well on university exams and a good college definitely leads to a
better job. Each university has its own entrance exam, and some universities have high schools
that feed directly into them, obviously those who attend these high schools will be better
prepared for the university exam than those who attend other high schools. The incredibly
competitive format of the Japanese education system encourages these women to push their
children to study past care for the child’s emotional well being.
The Kyōiku Mama is a social climber who will go to any extreme to get her child into the
best schools and then push them to perform at a high rate within their school. In a capitalist
2
Supply. Fuji TV. 2006.
Kimi wa Petto. Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS). 2003.
4
Ohitorisama. TBS. 2009.
3
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society in which education is the criterion for social mobility a good education ensures that her
child will maintain middle class standing, and an excellent education could mean social
improvement. This behavior is a direct result of the “Good Wife, Wise Mother” ideal, in that
society holds women responsible for the education and success of their children. In taking care of
her child’s education she pleases her husband, fulfills her duty as a mother, and ensures that her
child will be financially capable of caring for her in old age. An extreme example of this
stereotype can be found in the story “Hana yori Dango,” (花より男子) a story about a young
woman from a working class family whose mother sacrifices everything to keep her daughter in
an elite high school, to the point that her family is living in squalor in order to afford the
exorbitant school fees (Kamio). This story, which is a type of the Cinderella motif, is so popular
that it has been incarnated as a 37 volume manga, a 51 episode anime, several television dramas,
and two feature films. The popularity of the story goes beyond the obvious draw of the
unrealistic Cinderella motif, and points to an audience that relates to the realism of the young
girl’s relationship with her aggressive mother.
The most revered ideal for women in Japan is “Yamato Nadeshiko” (大和撫子) a term
which translates literally as Japanese dianthus. Yamato is an old Japanese word that means
Japanese spirit, a sort of patriotism, and Nadeshiko is the word for a small delicate flower
commonly called a pink in English. The combination of the two represents a sort of perfect
Japanese lady; the ideal revolves around traditional Japanese ideas of women as appearing
graceful and delicate like flowers and yet being domestically skillful and strong enough to keep
house, raise children, and use wisdom to be a credit to her husband and nation. Further, she
should be humble, obsequious to patriarchal authority figures, and always behave in the interest
of her family. Popularized by World War II propaganda, the idea is very much alive in Japanese
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culture as can be seen the 2000 television drama that takes this concept as its title. “Yamato
Nadeshiko” (Fuji TV, 2000) tells the story of a beautiful accomplished young woman who has
set a goal of marrying wealth; ironically, she mistakes a fish shop owner for a doctor and then
pursues him. While the plot of the show twists ideas of womanhood by showing the duplicity of
this paragon, at the same time it reinforces ideas of Japanese patriarchy through the inherent
moral and intellectual superiority of the male love interest to the foolish lead.
More recently a manga entitled “Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge” has been adapted for
television (ヤマトナデシコ七変化), the title translates as “Japanese lady transformation” and
features a rebellious young woman whom the other characters must reform into a proper lady
(TBS, 2010). Sunako is intelligent and domestically skillful, but her guardian is displeased that
she spends most of her time watching horror movies and dressing in Goth clothing. The story is
interesting in that it pokes fun at the somewhat unrealistic goal of the “perfect lady” as it shows
how inappropriate such a role is for Sunako. However, it reinforces the centrality of the ideal in
Japanese culture, for despite the girl’s happiness in her current lifestyle none of the other
characters question that it is in her best interest to become the ideal lady until after they have
tried to reform her. Another recent television show “Otomen” (オトメン or 乙男) featured a
beauty pageant entitled the “Yamato Nadeshiko” in which high school aged girls competed to
show not only their beauty but also their mastery of traditional lady like skills such as tea service
and flower arranging (Fuji TV, 2009). Obviously, the ideology of the Japanese woman as flower
like ladies is alive and well in modern Japanese culture.
History of Japanese Feminism
Popular stereotypes of Japanese women following the above-mentioned ideologies are
prevalent not only in Japan but abroad. A fellow student of the Japanese culture once said to me
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that feminism does not exist in Japan, whether he was operating under “geisha girl” style
Western prejudice or simply a lack of information such a statement coming from a college
student majoring in Asian Studies with a focus on Japan is telling. It is not surprising that the
patriarchal structure of Japanese Society has encouraged such ideals, but despite its efforts
feminism has been present in Japan since the late 19th century. Around the time of the Meiji
restoration women began openly engaging in discourses that supported women’s rights and
improvement to their legal status. From that time till now Japanese feminism has continued to
voice dissent against patriarchal Japanese society while powering change.
The Meiji Restoration allowed a flood of Western thought to enter Japan, and many
believe this to be the source of the feminist feeling that arose at this time. Barbara Molony points
out that “rights” have always been salient in Japanese thought, and she suggests that nineteenthcentury concepts of rights drew from indigenous ideas as well (Molony 640). The Japanese
culture has always placed value on “self-cultivation through education and ethical development”
as can be seen in both education and religious practices. Combined with the Western “notion that
the cultivated person was an individual who was entitled to a respected role in civil society” this
value gave women the idea that they deserved inclusion in the emerging modern state of Japan.
In 1919 the formation of the New Woman Association [Shin Fujin Kyoukai 新婦人協会]
marked the beginning of Japanese women’s unification to work towards better rights. Their
platform consisted of being allowed to take part in politics and the right to escape relationships
where a husband had contracted a sexually transmitted disease. At this time in Japan a woman
caught in adultery could be divorced and spend 2 years in prison, but there was no similar
punishment for a man and in fact women had no legal recourse for refusing a husband who had
contracted an STD from a lover (Molony 647). The New Woman Association was successful in
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getting the Public Peace Police Law amended and it was just the first of many political
organizations created by women in Japan in the early 1900’s. The many groups had goals
ranging from increasing women's political rights to ending licensed prostitution and even
housewives' campaigning to rationalize the value of their own contribution to society. While
many of these women might not have described them-selves as “women's rights activists,” their
goals necessitated women's political rights. Molony writes that, “Feminist reformism permeated
Taisho liberal culture” with women's “consumer groups of varied political persuasions, socialist
feminist groups, bourgeois descendants of the NWA, the venerable Women's Reform Society
(the Japanese branch of the WCTU, founded in 1886), and so on,” but the different goals of these
many organizations limited the effectiveness of their focus on political rights for women as a
unified class (Molony 655). The devastating earthquake that destroyed most of Tokyo on
September 1, 1923, motivated all of these groups to work together and on September 28, 1923
the leaders of 43 different organization met together to form the Tokyo Federation of Women’s
Organizations (Tokyo Rengo Funjinkai 東京連語婦人会). The Federation worked together to
support the relief effort for victims of the earthquake and later created five separate groups to
focus on the issues of society, employment, labor, education, and government (Molony 656).
Through the interwar period Japanese women continued to campaign for political rights, but they
would not receive the right to vote until after the war.
The postwar period saw even greater changes in Japan’s political and social structure
with the introduction of democracy. The new constitution stipulated legal equality for men and
women, and gave women the right to vote. It is on evidence of the above mentioned Women’s
Rights groups that Barbara Sato argues the concept of “new women” in Japan existed outside of
the “postwar American bestowal of modern democracy,” and therefore that said bestowal cannot
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be held responsible for the creation of the Japanese women’s liberation (Sato 13). According to
Sato, “the conditions that promoted the transformation in urban women's lives and produced
complex feminine images were already in progress before the war.” She focuses her examination
on three types of women in this period, “the modern girl” (moga or modan gaaru モダンガール),
the "self-motivated" housewife (shufu 主婦), and the working woman (shokugyofujin 職漁夫
人).” These three types offered a new model of identity in the interwar period, and that it is from
these models that Japanese women’s liberation arose.
Once they finally received the right to vote Women’s groups sought to find other ways of
improving the living conditions of women in Japan. Molony explains that their major interests
lay both in having a voice in their society and being protected by society from “institutionalized
patriarchy, from sexually transmitted diseases, and from miserable economic and labor
conditions” which endangered women and children (Molony 641). Concern over reproductive
rights and the use of contraception led women to campaign for legalized abortion and
contraception. In the 1940’s abortion was adopted only for medical reasons and it was not until
1996 that abortion became an option for Japanese women. Women’s rights groups continue to
campaign against domestic violence. Women’s rights groups influenced the government to
recognize women’s rights in the workplace with the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, which,
at least on paper, guarantees women equal rights in the work place.
Feminism in Japan has made a number of differences in social beliefs, and a 2002 gender
equality survey done by the Cabinet reveals some changes in attitudes amongst both men and
women about gender division in labor. In similar 1992 and 1997 surveys a majority of
respondents said that they agreed with the statement “Husbands should work outside the home
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and wives should take care of their families,” but in the 2002 survey an equal amount of people
agreed and disagreed with this statement (Curtin). At the same time, in 2007 Japan decided to
create the Gender-Equality Society in an effort to improve their level of gender equality on an
international comparison level. When compared with 12 other countries in Asia, Europe and
North America the proportion of female parliamentary members in Japan was second from the
bottom with 9.4 %, next to Malaysia (8.9 %). Similar low numbers of female national civil
servants (20%) in 2005 ranked Japan the lowest of 10 countries, while the other nine countries
had percentages in the range of 34 and 56 percent. Japan’s proportion of female workers in posts
of section manager or higher is shockingly low at only 1.8%, in comparison to some other
countries where the proportions were as high as 62%. The proportion of women in managerial
positions in Japan is low not only compared to European and North American countries, but also
compared to other countries in Asia (Long Way to Go, Japan Labor Flash).
Japanese Feminists have a strong history of banding together across social boundaries to
create change, and this unified class of women can be a powerful political force. However, in
modern Japan women continue to struggle against discrimination in the work place, and
divisions of opinion about gender roles undermine the attempts to improve the situation. The
current high quality of life in Japan has lead many women to be happy with the status quo which
makes it far more unlikely that they will band together to support women’s politics over the
individual concerns of their own families. In contrast, the combination of the sharp decline in
birth rates over the last decade and the growth of the ageing class has prompted the Japanese
government to institute changes in workforce equality in order to encourage more women to join
the workforce and grow the available labor pool. The government has put in places many
institutions which are intended to break down the gender inequalities in the workplace, but they
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can only go so far when put up against traditional ideas entrenched within the Japanese society
about gender roles. The future growth of women’s rights in Japan requires that the feminist
discourse work to influence not merely political institutions, but the societal beliefs on which
such prejudices operate.
Part time workers in Japan
Japan stands out in statistical analysis of labor force, because they have an unusually high
percentage of female part-time workers (Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare 2004). The
majority of women who work are part-timers; however, Kaye Broadbent points out the
significant fact that the definition is not based on hours worked but on gender in many cases.
Broadbent points out how gender affects the classification of a worker as part or fulltime
regardless of hours worked, and how this further accords a low status to working women.
Broadbent argues that as long as companies classify them as part-time workers they receive
fewer financial and welfare benefits than their full-time colleagues who work equivalent hours.
In the postwar years Japan’s “miracle economy” depended upon labor dualism along
gender lines, that is to give female workers less pay and benefits than male workers completing
the same tasks. As David Kucera puts it, “It is fair to state that the employment fluctuations of
female workers…provide cushions for the lifetime employment system of male regular workers”
(Kucera 100).During the Bubble economy, this practice worked to keep Japanese unemployment
rates seemingly low and contributed to economic growth, but these figures were somewhat
misleading. Kucera gives three main reasons why temporary or part-time employment is an
important determinant for the “high employment volatility” of Japanese women. They are: 1)
that a high percentage of Japanese temporary workers are women, 2) a high percentage of those
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temporary workers are in their prime working years, and 3) there is a very high employment
volatility of Japanese temporary workers.
Part-time workers are obviously given a low status in any workplace, and in the Japanese
workplace it results in huge inequalities amongst the workers. Part-time workers, who are mostly
women, are concentrated into low paid, low skilled, poorly unionized service sector jobs. Parttime workers in Japan work hours equal to or greater than those worked by full-time workers, but
they receive less financial and welfare benefits (Broadbent 12). In addition part-time workers do
not have the job security of full-time workers and can often be fired at will. When women return
to the workforce after having children their same age male counterparts have moved far beyond
them in skills and pay grade. In response to this, many women are now choosing not to have
children, or for that matter, not to marry at all, in order to pursue a “career track.” Japanese
women represent less than 1% of Japanese management and 73% of female managers at or
above the position of ‘section head’ have not ever borne children (Kitamura 69). The number of
women who choose not to marry, and married couples who choose not to have children
continues to increase. Consequently, Japan finds itself with a birth shortage and a society with a
substantial disproportion between the aging class and the next generation of workers who will
support them. Clearly, the current system of business practices works to dissuade career minded
girls from having families, and as the economic situation worsens fewer families will be capable
of surviving on single incomes. The current business practices force women to choose between
self-sufficiency, financial insecurity, or holding out for a super-provider. All three options are
unhealthy for Japan’s economic and social future.
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(Fig.1)
(Labour Force Participation Rate by Sex and Age Group. National Survey of Family Income and
Expenditure, Japan Statistical Yearbook, 2010.)
The m shape of female workers in the figure 1 shows the age group in which some
women are retiring temporarily to raise children and take care of their families. Note that even at
the lowest point of this temporary retirement only about 10% of the female workforce is actually
retiring to do this, the rest of the female workforce is staying employed, but they continue to deal
with the consequences of the stereotype that all will retire. There has been a major change
between the amount of women temporarily retiring even in just the 10 years this graph covers it
is obvious that more women are working and more women are choosing to remain employed
throughout their lives.
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Even the government tax system discourages women from becoming full-time workers,
because if the wife stays at home or does not earn over 1,030,000 yen (11,500 USD) per year
then as a family they can take a 380,000 yen (4,240 USD) tax deduction, and she can receive
pension and medical insurance. This is in fact a rather low allowance, considering that a living
wage in Japan is more than double that amount, and the average worker earns around 3,190,848
yen per year (Based on salary & business average income per workers’ household and number of
earners per household. National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure). The government of
Japan may consider this tax system beneficial to women who want to stay at home and take care
of their husbands and children, but for those who wish to work it is almost a penalty, which
restricts them to part-time or temporary work (Kitamura 69). Further, this system allows
companies to keep women’s wages low to “benefit” the employee. At the same time this
“penalty” encourages career minded women not to marry in order to have a more favorable tax
status. As married women currently make up half of the Japanese workforce, it is clear that
families need the extra income to meet their needs, but the tax system limits these women who
wish to work to part-time low paying jobs and stunts their economic power.
Full time workers in Japan
One cannot examine women’s position in Japan as part-time workers without comparing
that of the full-time male worker. The most traditional idea of the full-time worker is the
Japanese ‘salary man’, who is hired out of college and works in the same company until he
retires. Unlike the part-time worker he continues to be promoted and receive wage increases
based on seniority as well as performance, and he also earns paid vacation and pension benefits.
He is expected to spend very little time with his family, and to develop closer relationships with
Fancher 20
superiors and coworkers than with his own children. This position puts a great deal of pressure
on Japanese men to be super-providers. As they are solely responsible for the financial solvency
of their family, when they lose a job or make financial mistakes it is considered a failure at life.
In most advanced countries, the group with the lowest suicide rate is people in their middle age,
but in Japan this group has the highest suicide rate and recent government studies show that
work-related depression is undoubtedly a prime motive. The effects of the gender role pressure
can be measured by the fact that the suicide rate of middle aged men in Japan is five times higher
than that of women in the same age group (Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2004).
As we have already observed traditional ideas about family roles make it hard for women
to join the workforce, but at the same time these ideals make it difficult for men to spend time
with their children. Society forces men into the role of economic provider and is not
understanding of men who wish to take part in childcare and housework. The 1992 Childcare
Leave Law allows a parent to take a one year leave of absence (without pay) to spend time taking
care of their children and guarantees they will be able to return to the same job at the same level.
This law was intended to allow parents to spend more time with their children, but there are no
penalties for companies who violate it, and men who have taken advantage of the program have
been “harassed by their bosses and/or colleagues. In fact, in one case, a man was transferred to
China almost immediately upon his return to work from childcare leave, owing to embarrassment”
(Kitamura 71). So, full-time male workers are expected to live the ‘salary man’ life and to be
connected through their family on a mostly monetary basis, and the system of discouraging
females from working places the brunt of economic earning pressure solely on men. Obviously,
the disproportionate sexual division of labor is not only damaging to the economic power of
Fancher 21
Japanese women, it is also destructive to the familial connections and mental wellbeing of
Japanese men.
The clearest marker of the discrepancy between male and female workers in Japan is the
difference in wages earned. As can be seen by figure 2 women’s monthly wages never really
surpass the 300,000 yen mark. Possibly the most disturbing thing about the discrepancies
between male and female employment is that the female employees are often just as well
educated as their male counterparts. Women with four year college degrees work as secretaries
beside men with the same level of education, and while the men can be promoted and increase
their earnings and status, the women can at best hope not to be forced into retirement. The
governmental policies on taxation along with unfair classification of part-time versus full-time
workers reinforce the societal conventions on the sexual division of labor.
(Fig.2)
Fancher 22
(Monthly Contract Earnings of Regular Employees by Sex and Age Group. National Survey of
Family Income and Expenditure, JSY, 2010.)
Sexual Harassment
As can be expected in a patriarchal society that discourages women from working in the
first place, sexual harassment is rampant in the Japanese workplace. Yuki Huen writes that
Japanese society has accepted sexual harassment as a normal part of the workplace for decades,
and despite the passing of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law(EEOL) the situation has not
truly improved (Huen 822). The EEOL is a law which states that no workplace can discriminate
by sex when recruiting, hiring, placing, or promoting employees. Huen points out that it was not
until the late 1990s that Japanese society even acknowledged sexual harassment. Japanese
society did not consider it an issue of sexual discrimination, but rather a problem between
individuals. The belief was that when a woman was sexually harassed in the workplace it was
not the business of the company but of the two individuals involved.
Due to its cultural past, it is important to examine the Japanese government’s measures to
combat workplace sexual harassment through the social context of Japan. Just like the Childcare
Leave Law, the enforcement of the EEOL is entirely through administrative guidance, but “there
is no provision to hold companies accountable, it is still up to the companies to comply” (Huen
822). The accepted social beliefs of gender stereotypes and discrimination dilute the reliability of
these private companies. Most female employees are temps or part-time workers, and therefore
their position in the company is already more tenuous then that of male life time employees.
When almost all of the people in management are men, it is unlikely a female employee will see
any purpose in reporting sexual harassment. Further, when a company must choose between the
Fancher 23
part-time female employee’s rights and the prerogatives of a full-time male employee, it is
usually in their interest to simply fire the female employee. Huen’s answer to this issue is that the
Japanese must change these social beliefs in some way, and this will have a greater effect on
sexual harassment in Japan than the EEOL.
Huen explains that “Japanese culture promotes conformity with passive social norms and
avoids confrontation with others” (Huen 813). For Japanese women this means that society
teaches them not to create a fuss, especially where it is an issue of personal discomfort, which
might disrupt the larger group. For example, a woman who has been sexually harassed by a
colleague not only has the shame of being a victim, but if she disrupts the work environment to
complain then she has the further embarrassment of being a troublemaker. Further, Huen
presents evidence that, in the past, companies have either forced women who created such
disruption to resign or fired them. The EEOL creates a Catch-22 situation for victims of sexual
harassment, in which individuals exist in a society where they are discouraged from taking a
personal stand, but their only method of relief relies on such a personal stand. Obviously the
limitation for this argument is both the likelihood and apparatus of such social change. Huen
believes that “the women’s movement but also formal education are crucial to bring about
changes in social belief” (Huen 824). Another source for this change will be the increase in
women seeking the ‘career track’ rather than having families, as the occurrence of women in
higher level positions and management increases surely the environment of female employees
will improve. Huen is right in saying that the apparatus for change will not be these impotent
laws, but change on a social level.
In Japan men and women have equal rights in the Constitution and laws, but according to
Kazue Muta this is merely on the surface. In reality, Japanese women have a long way to go
Fancher 24
before they achieve equality with men on a “true” level (Muta 12-13). For Muta the clearest sign
of this is that “in spite of the high percentage of labor force participation of women, very few of
them hold managerial or administrative positions and women's representation on political bodies
remains low” (Muta 12). Muta believes the way to change such a problem is to encourage
Japanese women to be more political in their daily lives. Muta discusses how the heightened
attention paid to sexual harassment in recent years has brought the political more into the realm
of women’s private lives.
With public awareness of sexual harassment, women were given the right to speak out
against such behavior, and it was “very much a radical change of the perspective of how they see
their daily life experiences” (Muta 12). Muta argues that Japanese women realized that 'the
personal is political' when they began to communicate their personal experiences with sexual
harassment. By learning to speak out against sexual harassment, Muta believes Japanese women
can learn to become more assertive and self-confident in other situations that question a person’s
human rights and dignity. Muta’s points about the social realities of Japan in comparison with
the public face of governmental equality are convincing, and her argument for reform at the
personal level by encouraging women to be more political seems sensible. The limitations to this
conclusion lie in the ability of anyone to affect such social change, as the author herself said,
“many Japanese women are happy with their status quo,” and unlikely to attempt changing it.
Employment Types and Salaries
When examining the sexual division of labor it is important to look at different types of
employment and the salaries received from them. While studying in a Japanese university I was
shocked to discover the number of girls seeking four year degrees in order to become flight
Fancher 25
attendants. Many of these girls spoke 3 or 4 languages and were excellent students, so from my
point of view this seemed like a waste of skills. However, after some research I discovered that
the average flight attendant makes 449,000 yen a month, while a full-time office worker makes
roughly 314,000 yen a month (Labour Statistics). Most female college graduates are not able to
be hired as fulltime workers, so the average female office worker actually earns even less as a
part-time worker, and with this information the appeal of becoming a flight attendant has become
far more clear. Unless they wish to continue their education and become professors, become
translators, or work abroad their promising career options are not many.
(Fig.3)
(Monthly Contract Earnings of Regular Employees by Sex and Industry. National Survey of
Family Income and Expenditure, JSY, 2010.)
Fancher 26
Across any industry female workers make decidedly less money than male workers, due in
part to the fact that 99% of Japanese management positions are filled by men, but also due to
discrepancies between male and female pay grades within the same position. More significantly,
even educated women who stick with their careers and do not temporarily retire to raise a family
do not make similar amounts of money when compared to men of the same age, education, and
employment level. Though they may have been hired at the same level of employment, there is a
great inequality between male and female advancement opportunities and women frequently
receive less pay for the same job. Beyond this, it has been found that “women's wages but not
men's are negatively affected by the percentage of women in the job and by holding a job that is
shared with non-regular workers… that women are penalized more than men for these job
characteristics…that they also experience a sex pay gap and that this gap stems in part from the
wage penalties associated with working in a predominantly female job” (Aiba 67). The effect of
this arrangement can be seen in the salary differences between male and female workers with the
same qualifications in the same industry. Keiko Aiba writes that “the seniority wage system in
large Japanese firms places great importance on workers' ages, and most Japanese wage studies
reveal that pay is determined more by age than by the tasks performed,” yet Japanese female
workers earn less than male workers with the same years of service (Aiba 69). According to a
study done by the Japanese Ministry of Labor, a female college graduate can expect a starting
salary of 200,000 yen per month, which is not far from a male college graduate with the same
degree can expect around 210,000 yen per month. However, after 13 years of service the female
worker is making 348,000 yen while her male counterpart is making 407,000 yen. As time goes
on this discrepancy gets larger and larger as a woman’s salary is capped around 490,000 yen
while a male worker with the same years of service (30 years) in the same company could be
Fancher 27
making as much as 660,000 yen (Contractual Wages by Age and Academic Career). Granted, the
male employee may have received different training at some point, but the two workers started
out with the same level of education and the company utilized them according to its own wishes.
A Washington State University study found that in a certain large Japanese electrical machinery
company full-time male employees earned 62% more than full-time female employees with the
same education and job status. It was also noted in this study that this company employed
exclusively female part-time workers.(Aiba 74) In this way, gender roles are causing Japanese
industry to undervalue and even waste the skills of female employees.
Personal Interviews of Japanese Men and Women
I interviewed several young Japanese men and women, between the ages of 20 and 27,
about their perceptions and experiences of women in the Japanese workplace. All were college
graduates or current college students. I asked about their majors, careers and career goals, their
plans for their own roles as husbands and fathers or as wives and mothers in the future, their own
mothers’ careers and education, and finally their impressions of the Japanese workplace. Their
majors included English, Journalism, American and British Studies, Social Psychology, and
International Relations. Their career goals differed greatly and ranged from high school teacher
to multilingual music journalist to flight attendant. Masumi Nagata specifies, “The type of job
one can work for a long time, i.e. after marriage or having kids.” This statement brings to mind
the crux of the issue of Japanese women in the workplace.
Based on the idea that women will retire when they get married or have children
companies may feel justified in investing fewer of their assets in cultivating permanent female
employees. Of the people questioned, all stated that they intended to marry and have families but
Fancher 28
the women were divided on the issue of retiring to care for a family. Five of the nine wished to
keep their jobs through both marriage and child rearing, while the other four would quit working
only while the child is young but wished to return to work afterwards. Interestingly this divide
exactly follows the age gap in the group as well, the five against retiring were all age 23 or above
and already working and the four for retiring were still in university and age 21.
To determine the link between their own home situation and their future plans I also
questioned them about their mothers’ education level and career choices. With another close split,
five women said that their mothers had only a high school education, while the mothers of the
other four all had four year college degrees. Of those women who had a high school education
three of them have been employed for over 20 years, while the other two are both working parttime jobs now that their children are grown. An interesting comment from Reika Okada, whose
mother had graduated from a 4 year college, “she only works because my parents got divorced
when I was in grade school, and it is just a kind of part time job.” Ms. Okada also coincidently
belongs to the group who intend to retire when they have children. The other college graduate
mothers included a school teacher of 34 years, an insurance saleswoman of over 20 years who
has recently retired to care for her aging parents, and a wedding coordinator of over 10 years.
Those young women whose mothers achieved a college level of education and then continued to
work through child rearing also wished to do the same, with the exception of Ms. Okada whose
mother was seemingly working under duress. The men questioned had more varied responses:
one had a mother who completed only junior high school, two had mothers that had completed
high school, one had a mother with a 2 year college degree, and one had a mother with a 4 year
college degree. The mother with a junior high school education only began working once her son
went to college and she has been working as an office worker for 2 years in the same office. Of
Fancher 29
the two high school graduates one became a permanent housewife after childbirth, while another
one has worked as chef for over 15 years. Takehiro Yamamoto’s mother used her 2 year college
degree to become a child care worker and is successful enough at it to support her family, as
Takehiro said, “My family is a little different from others. My father does housework and mother
works.” Finally, the mother with a four year degree worked in Elementary education for over 20
years before recently retiring.
When asked whether it was more difficult for women to find work in Japan than for men,
they gave varying responses. Only two women said no, while the rest either gave an unequivocal
yes or clarified that there were certain jobs women could get and certain jobs that were almost
exclusively for men. The male responses similarly agreed that particularly in a business-oriented
job women would have a harder time, as Kenta Uchida put it, “because some old men don't like
to work with women.” Yukako Ohno had the most to say on this topic, “it totally depends on
what kind of job you want. Generally speaking at most companies, especially big manufacturers,
in Japan, you can choose the type of position before you work. Probably at the job interview or
whatever, it is called 総合職 (sougou shoku) and 一般職 (ippan shoku). Both are full time. 総合
職（sougou shoku) is the position that you have lots of possibility to get promoted if you work
really hard. You could be a president of the company in the future. 一般職( ippan shoku) is the
one that you’re never going to be promoted no matter how hard you try to get promoted,
basically the longer you work the more you are going to be paid. For the first one, companies
hire more men than women, the latter, it’s basically for women. It’s harder for women to get the
higher position at the starting point already, but the amount of women who get 総合職 is
obviously increasing. So, what I think is if you try to get the job like 一般職、it is not really
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hard for women to get one, but if you try to get one like 総合職 then it is still harder for women
to get one than it is for men. But it is not impossible at all.” Kayako Sato agrees that it depends
on the type of job, “Some jobs are easier to get for women, e.g. bank, insurance company, travel
agency, store, etc. Basically office work or a position which requires one to talk to customers
face to face. However, all of these jobs listed above, are still open for men. I say…it’s still harder
for women. Even though it’s changing now, many companies want men. There are still many
positions closed for women.” Keisuke Dei supported this female view, and like Kenta mentions
that “there is still the thought that men are superior at work to women in Japan. They don’t show
it to others or at least try not to, but there are some exceptions who exclaim that men are better at
work than women… especially among older people like my dad’s generation.” It’s a sign of
social change that it is becoming less acceptable to express such sexist views. Masumi
Nagata had a slightly different view, she believes “there’s an almost equal opportunity for
getting a job, but if you want to talk about getting promoted, that’s where it is more difficult for a
woman.” On the recommendation of my advisor I inquired whether they knew any Japanese
women who were small business owners, and the answer was a resounding no. Although two
women did mention they had heard on a television program about some young female
entrepreneurs who owned a cosmetics company and a lingerie company.
To get an idea of their larger peer group I asked what sorts of jobs their employed female
friends had, and the answers all fit within the predictable spectrum of retail sales, flight
attendants, clerical work in companies, cosmetologists, and care giving positions such as nursing
or teaching young children. While they did give insight to certain situations, the results of my
interviews did not surprise me in any way and agreed with the research I’ve covered so far. That
women are mostly relegated to lower level jobs, that many of them continue to work and raise
Fancher 31
children, and that it is difficult for women to achieve positions of power within Japanese
companies. I found it particularly reinforcing that the male interviewees had the same opinion of
workplace inequality that females did.
Japan’s Unemployment Crisis and Parasite Singles
Like much of the rest of the world, Japan is currently in a deep recession; exports, the
major part of its economy, have dropped by almost 50% from 2008 to 2009. The Japan
Manufacturing Outsourcing Association estimates that around 400,000 workers lost their jobs in
the last two quarters. Due to practices involving company housing, some 30,000 of that number
will be homeless. Official numbers state that currently some 2.7 million people in Japan do not
have work. With hundreds of thousands of people facing unemployment, those in part-time or
temporary positions are the most easily disposed of. Major corporations began their layoffs by
shedding temporary workers, which, as I have already stated, is a group largely composed of
women. Their temporary status provides few benefits, exempts them from any pension or social
security, and affords no protection from an employer simply firing them at will. Economics
Professor Charles Weathers states that, “Almost 90% of registered temporary workers in Japan
are women between ages 25 and 35 engaged primarily in office work. Research, based largely on
interviews with managers and coordinators in temporary service firms, indicated that a
combination of gender, age and status discrimination closely affects workplace conditions, and
that workers face high employment and income insecurity”(Weathers 201).
A large group of these part-time workers are referred to as “freeters” フリーター(furītā),
meaning someone who is between the ages of 18 and 35 and is not in school, a homemaker, or
Fancher 32
employed fulltime. Millions of these young Japanese workers move from one low-paid part-time
position to another with no real possibilities of improvement. Some work to support themselves
while trying to attain their dream jobs, some are resistant to the demanding corporate lifestyle,
and the majority simply cannot find full-time work. Another related group are NEETs (Not in
Employment, Education, or Training) who, unlike freeters, generally lack even part-time
employment. According to a report by the Japanese government as of July 2009 there were
nearly 650,000 NEET people in Japan. As wages for part-time workers do not have a legal
minimum they are often below the legal minimum wage of 1000yen (11 USD) per hour, and this
is well below a living wage in Japan. Most freeters and NEETs therefore remain dependent upon
their parents for the major part of their income, and generally have no savings. As a result these
children are also known as parasite singles. Parasite singles live off their parents support and use
the money they earn to buy frivolous things such as branded items or trips abroad. The 2000
Japanese census showed that 33% of women in Japan between ages 20 and 39 were single and
living in their parents home. They remain single because they lack the money to care for a family.
The ratio of those people in their 20’s and 30’s who have never been married has dramatically
risen. From 2000 to 2005 the percentage of never married people between the ages of 25-29, 3034 and 35-40 grew from 62%, 35%, and 20% to 65%, 40% and 25% collectively that is an
average gain of 4% (Population: Marital Status). The marriage rate for part-time workers
between the ages 20 and 34 is half that of regular workers of the same age. This presents a strain
on the aging parents as they have no choice but to continue supporting their children when they
should be or are retired.
Eventually these freeters and NEETs become un-hirable as anything but a part-time
worker due to Japanese hiring practices. Those who cannot find full-time employment after
Fancher 33
graduating from high school or university end up taking low paying jobs in order to receive some
income. The problem is that once someone takes a part-time low-level job it becomes even more
difficult to become a full-time employee. As an editorial in The Japan Times stated, “A couple
years on a dead-end "freeter" job can make it impossible to even apply for many positions.”
Japanese companies look to new graduates and mid-career individuals with experience as fulltime workers to fill their regular worker spaces. Even with an education, freeters who have held
part-time positions are looked at with a less favorable eye than new graduates or experienced
full-time workers. Japan also has a rather rigid system of age norms for employment; the system
is that when one finishes school one begins a career during one’s early 20’s, once a person
reaches their late 20’s or 30’s they are viewed as undesirable new hires (Kalleburg 341). A
longer term concern for these freeters is that the Japanese pension system only pays based on the
number of years one has been paying into it, and most part-time positions do not include
pensions, so they could work their entire lives and still have nothing to retire on.
While their personal lack of marketable skills or the unemployment situation in Japan
may contribute to this problem, it cannot be ignored that it is particularly challenging for
Japanese women to find full-time work. Amongst new graduates they are already perceived as
less desirable than prospective male employees of the same education level. If they become
freeters they are less likely to be viewed with sympathy, as they are expected to simply marry
and be cared for by a husband. Due to the previously mentioned hiring practices a woman who
tries to enter the workforce after taking a break for childbirth has even fewer prospects. Middleaged women who try to return to work after their children have grown are restricted to part-time
low paying jobs, and are faced with similar age norm expectations.
Fancher 34
Young women who divorce their husbands and try to rejoin the workforce are outside of
the protection of society; they are barred from entering employment beyond part-time, and often
make a wage so low they cannot even afford housing. This lifestyle is called “working poor” in
Japan, meaning someone who is employed but cannot afford even simple lodgings. This group
includes many divorced women and widows who retired after marrying and now have children
or parents to support. While it can be argued that their own lack of skill keeps them in this job
bracket, it cannot be ignored that Japanese business hiring practices shut these women out based
both on age and gender. In “Organizing Marginalized and Non-Regular Workers – A US-Japan
Comparison” Charles Weathers points out that temporary female workers face a further disparity
in which agencies place “some temporary agency workers for an employer based in part on
managers’ desire for young and pretty women rather than work skills.”
As mentioned before, Japan has an aging population that outnumbers its birthrate; the
growing freeter and NEET portions of the population contribute to this as these people generally
do not have families. As of the last census in 2005, people over the age of 65 made up over 20%
of Japan’s population, while people under 15 made up only 13% and the birthrate remains below
replacement rate at 1.5 children (Population: Age). This situation of less than replacement
birthrate has become a problem in many advanced countries, excepting the United States.
Households made up of a married couple with no children have nearly doubled since 2000,
meanwhile households made up of a married couple and their children have decreased
(Population: Households).
In the future there will likely not be enough young workers to support those who are
living on pensions and social security. Of particular concern in the case of Japanese society,
where children traditionally care for their retired parents, there may not be enough young
Fancher 35
workers with jobs capable of supporting their elderly parents. It is therefore possible that as more
aging workers retire businesses will be forced tweak their hiring practices and make way for
more freeters in their late 20’s and 30’s to start new careers. The following graph of information
gathered by the 2005 Census illustrates the upside-down pyramid shape of working age people
created by the aging population of Japan and decreasing number of births.
In Figure 4, note the two baby booms amongst the 56-58 year olds and 31-34 year olds,
from 1974 on the rate of childbirth has steadily decreased. In the next ten years this first group
will be retiring and the second, considerably smaller, baby boom will be supporting them. There
has not been another baby boom in the last 36 years, so when the second set of baby boomers
retires in roughly 30 years they will be supported by a working class that is half their size. Even
this assumes a working class which is an optimum number of the population, and with the
increase in part-time and temporary workers the number of those actually supporting the pension
system may be even smaller.
Fancher 36
(Fig.4)
Companies need to even out the discrepancies of pay and benefits for part-time and fulltime workers who perform the same tasks and work the same hours. Improved pay and benefits
would allow more freeters to create their own households and start families.
Fancher 37
Conclusion
As Eiko Shinotsuka, assistant dean of Ochanomizu University said, ''Japan has gone as
far as it can go with a social model that consists of men filling all of the economic, management
and political roles.'' The business practices of strict age norms and gender prejudice for hiring are
restricting to Japan’s economic productivity. The most important thing that needs to occur in
Japan is social change that will allow all people who want to and are capable of work to do so
regardless of their gender or age. Most likely, this will occur somewhat naturally through social
changes forced by the shrinking pool of work aged Japanese males. As more women demand
non-temporary positions companies will be forced to rethink their hiring practices. As more
women succeed in managerial positions and fewer women retire to care for families, younger
generations of Japanese will have progressive views on women in the workplace. While its
traditional female roles and group mentality will continue to shape the Japanese outlook, there is
already evidence that the current generation of college graduates has a far different viewpoint
from that of their parents and this will modify the Japanese business world. Cultures are not
static and as the global economy is ever more intertwined, so too will global standards of
business practice become more important in relationships between companies.
Fancher 38
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