Working Women in Japan

Japan ranks 101^st on the World Economic Forums Gender Equality Index, it has one of the lowest rankings in the developed world.  It’s fair to assume then that working in a Japanese company would mirror this statistic, or at least serve to illuminate why the inequality exists in the first place.  What I learned was much more complex than I anticipated. I’m incredibly fortunate to have interned at a place that clearly valued women’s participation and their issues, but that’s not to say that concerns don’t exist and that we shouldn’t attempt to address them. In this post I wanted to explore some of the themes that emerged when I was able to interview various different women working at the company in different positions and age brackets. 

Things Are Changing:

There was a time (really not that long ago) when even the idea of having a family and working was impossible. One female employee felt that promotions were unattainable unless you were willing to sacrifice your family life.  As a female Senior Executive bluntly pointed out, when she was young very few women worked in the company and they most certainly didn’t keep working after marriage. To an extent this culture still exists in practice, I mean there is only 1 female executive with a child, and although the trend of women returning to work after starting a family is changing it is still in its infancy. What’s different today however is the open-mindedness of management to these concerns. Every one of the women I interviewed brought up concerns about balancing private life and work and feeling like they had to choose between the two. While this notion is heavily internalized by female employees, it doesn’t represent the reality they face. Two women noted that after speaking to their managers about their concerns they were surprised at how accommodating their seniors were. The attitude of management isn’t the same as it was 20years ago, and they are supporting women in pursuing all their goals (personal and professional). This goes for male and female executives alike. The senior female executive noted that her position provided her with the unique (and important position) to advocate for the maternity needs of women amongst her male colleagues. But this push isn’t just happening from women. Male managers are being more active and asking their female employees about their personal goals in order to help facilitate a system that works for everyone. 

Work / Life balance isn’t just about women though, and a lot of the time that seems to be the focus. In Japanese society domestic duties are still highly feminized, which means it can often be seen as the women’s responsibility to run the household, and there for men don’t require the same accommodations. In reality, promoting a balance has to include both genders partaking in household management. In the workplace that means accommodating flexible schedules for all employees; not just women. The senior executive (who attributes a lot of the ease in her role to her husband’s support for her work) noted that the young married man who returns home early is an example for his peers and is improving everyone’s understanding in the role men and women need to play to achieve this balance. 

Not everything’s perfect:

As one would expect there are still many concerns surrounding women in the work force. While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s hallmark “Womenomics” policy has increased the visibility of women in the workforce it hasn’t addressed a lot of the issues that women in most companies still face. Because there’s a lot of concerns and because I was fortunate enough to intern at a company that is incredibly progressive (and therefor I don’t have firsthand knowledge about many of the issues) I want to focus on just two main themes. 

Nomikai Culture:

The first of which is Nomikai Culture. Those who aren’t familiar with Japan may not be versed on what the Nomikai is, or how it can present a uniquely Japanese challenge for working women. So a brief intro before I continue. Nomikai’s are Japanese drinking parties that are embedded into work place culture. They occupy a weird space between the formal and informal and are slightly akin to a drinking meeting. So while most women agree that mistreatment at the office is rare and unspeakable, there seems to be more ambiguity around what is acceptable treatment of women at a Nomikai. In these situations the treatment of women can seem demeaning. Especially since entertaining is a large part of the female employee’s role at a Nomikai. The younger female employees I interviewed spoke about the necessity to look and act cute while also managing the table (serving drinks, handing out cutlery, etc.). The older Executive also agreed that women had a specific entertaining purpose at Nomikai’s, particularly when she was young. Back then the youngest female employee would sit next to the most superior male and be responsible for entertaining him. Because Nomikai’s are always exclusive to your team, and can include clients and other project members there is also a clash in the progressiveness of those individuals within the company and those outside it. One female employ pointed to a case where harassment from a client at a Nomikai motivated her to remover herself from a project. The blurred line between formal and informal at Nomikai’s seem to make all of this behaviour slightly more tolerable than would even be thinkable in the office setting. From the little time I have spent in a Japanese company and the limited interviews I did, Nomikai’s are one of the most fascinating and troubling aspects to me. 

Lack of Confidence: 

Not every aspect of women’s inequality is a result of active male oppression, and that’s evidenced by one of the most pressing issues I noticed for Japanese working women. A lot of what is holding women back is internalized. If we return briefly to the question of work/life balance a major theme among the female employees I spoke to was their own belief that both things were not simultaneously achievable. It wasn’t until discussing their concerns with superiors that they were aware of the support they could receive.  The result of these discussions was often a surprise to the female employees, who if not pushed would likely have been too shy to assert their goals for balance between both. If you lack the confidence to say what you are aiming for the proper support cannot be cultivated. 

 When I asked the female senior executive what she thought the biggest change in corporate culture is that facilitated increased participation of women she responded (quite surprisingly) that the change did come as much from the company as it came from herself. She noted that as she aged her confidence and self-esteem increased, meaning she was no longer embarrassed to ask for what she desired or pursue any goals she had set. If I compare this lack of confidence into the young women in the West I think it’s quite a different scenario. Yes the question of work / life balance still exists but the confidence to voice those concerns isn’t as marginalized as it is in Japan. 

The Future:

I am a bit surprised and extremely grateful of the incredible strides that this company has made to improve women’s experience in the workplace. I think discussions, not just among the women of the company but among all branches of employees will help to drive progress forward, and in a company where management is so open minded I don’t think that such discussions are a stretch or overly idealistic. That being said there is a lot of room for improvement and there needs to be discussions around topics like childcare, equality of pay, and so much more that I was unable to cover. But the future for Japanese working women is one that I (as a potential future working women in Japan ;) ) am incredibly invested in. I’ll end this post with the advice that a senior female executive gave. Her words ring true for young male and female employees alike, and they are not particularly restricted to a Japanese context. In essence her words were “be ambitious and be clear about your ambitious”. If you have goals, personal and professional, and you can articulate them both your superiors will be invested in helping you achieve them.


Till next time,

F.