Japan ranks 3rd worst place for working women in 2024 int'l ranking

I dedicate this article to the commenters who were claiming Japan was the best country in the world for women a few weeks ago. This one's for you dudes!

Japan definitely has a way to go on this, but I think it's improved an enormous amount during my time here.

In my company, parents (and non-parents) can flexibly adjust their hours to look after children, and work remotely whenever needed. There are a number of female senior managers, including directors, who have balanced work and childcare for many years.

I realize this may not be "the norm" for every company but I do think Japan is becoming much more aware of the issues now, and of the vital (and thus far unsung) role that parenting plays in building a decent society. It's taken until the birthrate has plummeted, and the oyaji have steadily retired, to get here, but it is at least now being realized.

Government policy has a huge role in this too, as even if some oyaji are still stuck in Showa, they are afraid of breaking regulations and losing their own jobs, so they will comply until the generation that is naturally aware takes over.

In short, Japan has a way to go, but is moving in the right direction.

Wow, what a groundbreaking discovery... not! This is nothing new.

Next, they'll tell us that water is wet!

Yes yes, please stop if you are starting to repeat the boring mantra “But Japan is safe and clean. Women can walk safely at night”. Ok ok, Japan is safer and cleaner compared to many Western countries, but concerning various aspects such as work-life balance, gender equality in society and workplaces, and other aspects not strictly related to women (such as the amount and quality of free time for children, school system innovation) is decades behind.

I realize this may not be "the norm" for every company but I do think Japan is becoming much more aware of the issues now, and of the vital (and thus far unsung) role that parenting plays in building a decent society. It's taken until the birthrate has plummeted, and the oyaji have steadily retired, to get here, but it is at least now being realized.

I think the internet also plays a big role in this, as younger generations now have a much larger and accessible window to different lifestyles than before, which helped them realize what they thought was the norm was actually not normal at all.

My Japanese wife won’t go back to Japan just for that reason. She is tired of being treated like a slave. Now, she manages a sushi shop in Newcastle, Australia and loves her job. She works regular hours and doesn’t have to put up with all the sempai crap she had to deal with in her office work in Japan.

The job of women in Japan is to look pretty and pleasant, nod supportively to statements made by their bosses (male) and to tilt their head and say they’re not sure when they disagree.

If you happen to be cute with a high voice, you can become the sakura of the office and do more gestures with smiles. Point, look surprised, pretend you’re offended, purse your lips, puff out your cheeks and tilt your head some more to show more endearing expressions that’s all a part of a common repertoire. Then you might have some influence with the Kacho and Bucho.

Make sure your bangs are straight.

Article = big reason why Japan's population is rapidly shrinking and aging.

Companies need to step it up and be $incentivized by the Govt. to promote policies that help working women have more equality and opportunity to have children.

Companies need employees and customers in the future, right? That means kids needed today!

The article also fails to present why is this the case. The misogynistic patriarchy culture tells only a part of the story.

However more than half of the reasons is that the women CHOOSE NOT TO WORK.

Every Japanese women and girl I know dreams on finding a reach person and become a housewife. Especially if she is cute and schoolgirl jolly, like most of the Japanese prefer. The women actually do not want long hours and responsibility roles, they prefer to stay home and have the husband as an ATM.

So very much if this is choice based, not misogynistic.

The comments… Talk about misogynistic feminists!

Japan is still pretty good. My female boss pays me more than the female staff doing the same job. Stunpals.com

Nobody doubts many women want a traditional housewife role, but that's less and less every day as Japan steadily becomes poorer and poorer.

Therefore, policies must be enacted to help better ensure Japan can stabilize its population. Means helping working women achieve better work life balance.

FYI, Japan has higher % of women in workforce today than any G-7 country = so much for 'housewife' theory.

The non-Japanese posters on JT appear to be far more misogynistic than the Japanese men I work with.

quercetumToday 06:28 pm JST

The job of women in Japan is to look pretty and pleasant, nod supportively to statements made by their bosses (male) and to tilt their head and say they’re not sure when they disagree.

Showa called, and wants its stereotypes back.

Your outdated scene is not my "job," and it's not the job of countless other women.

DanteKHToday 06:44 pm JST

Every Japanese women and girl I know dreams on finding a reach person and become a housewife.

I think you mean "rich" here. If so, that is certainly not my experience.

Like the above poster, we must move in very different circles.

The women actually do not want long hours and responsibility roles, they prefer to stay home and have the husband as an ATM.

"The women?" What, all women here?

過労死 (Karoshi) - This is the term coined to describe how men worked themselves to death over decades. Welcome women. You played yourself.

Gaslighting at best!!

NOT JUST WOMEN, Men, and children as well.

Anyone surprised by this? Anyone? Didn't think so. And yet they want to boost their ever shrinking population and dismal birth rate. Not going to happen if companies and organisations aren't going to provide opportunities for a proper work/life balance, not just for women but men as well.

The survey found that the overall representation of women on company boards rose to 33 percent from 21 percent in 2016, with men and women in Britain, France and New Zealand nearly at parity in terms of company board positions held.

If you believe that your sex is an important deciding factor for choosing board members, you might be sexist

Despite a positive trend in education, labor participation remained low for women, affecting career progression and the gender pay gap

Gender pay gap is a myth. This paragraph helps illustrate this fact. More women stay out of the work force. This means that there will naturally be fewer women in higher paying positions, affecting the average pay. But a difference in “average pay” does not indicate a wage gap based on gender, nor does it indicate causation.

Not Only That, I believe that Japanese workers pay one on of the higher or somewhat equal rates in Social security tax and GET the least amount in retirement benefits among the so called G7 nations.

I have learnt, still learning, Japan, its heart is a cultural maze, labyrinth of traditions, beyond comprehension.

Start for this perspective,

Seniority in business cannot simply smothered out of existence, I have tried, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

There are no norms.

Little a outsider, in my case a foreigner can simply force feed.

Women can raise the bar, however the strength to achieve is not in question, it is the choice to do so

Unhappy women don't have kids and that's the CORE problem facing Japan, whether at Home and at Work!

'Why's" are numerous, but if one spends on average most of their days being treated badly or less than equally, pretty hard to be very happy, isn't it?!

It also helps if companies are $successful too and happier employees correlates with company success!

in business, it's a waste of talent. same for medicine, science and well, just about in everything.

in business, it's a waste of talent.

If you had a choice between buying

1) a car that was likely to run for a long time, or

2) a car that would likely stop running for 1 year with the promise to start running again only to stop running after a short time, wasn't as fast as the first car, couldn't carry as much as the first car, didn't run well 3 or 4 days every month, didn't signal as you expected, etc. etc.

... which would YOU choose?

Women are disadvantaged in Japan, but I wouldn't judge it on the number of CEOs or female MPs. It is clear that other women make little effort to vote for female candidates. What matters is life for millions of ordinary women, not how well the small female elite do vs. the small male elite.

One obvious barrier to female activity in the workplace is spousal dependency under shakai hoken. It means SOH and part time working married women get a free pension so long as they do not earn too much. This free pension is funded by full time workers, including full time working women, who may be single or married. Since female life expectancy is 88, the average housewife can get close to 20 million yen (23 years x 800,000 a year) funded by someone else. The idea of ending spousal dependency has been suggested, but would be extremely unpopular, especially with older women whose husbands are more likely to be on shakai hoken giving them the free pension.

Allowing gender inequality wastes or disrespects the talent of about half the population thus a serious waste of resources.

The only way to increase the birth rate is to make life bearable for people so they are not demotivated from raising children. In Japan that would require changing rather a lot of previously accepted behaviours and cultural norms. Good luck!

Where are the statistics that show that Japan is one of the SAFEST places for women in the world?

Or the statistics that show that Japanese kids have some of the best manners in the world because many Japanese women CHOSE to become homemakers and mothers rather than wage slaves?

Or that more Japanese men than women commit suicide because of work?

Japan will never change for the better. This article is just the countless others that seem to indicate a society going backwards. All the foreigners going to Japan are now exposing the dark underbelly of Japanese society. I feel bad for the young people who've been left this society by the older boomers who are still stuck in the pre-1980's mentality. It's going to be hard the next few years as Japanese companies begin to struggle one by one and cost of living increases inequality, Japanese youth are increasingly working overseas and Japanese women are often exploited for their bodies. It's truly a dire situation with no easy answer.

LindsayToday  05:53 pm JST

My Japanese wife won’t go back to Japan just for that reason. She is tired of being treated like a slave. Now, she manages a sushi shop in Newcastle, Australia and loves her job. She works regular hours and doesn’t have to put up with all the sempai crap she had to deal with in her office work in Japan

All the down votes are from people who refuse to acknowledge that Japan actually has faults. "But the public toilets have heated seats and the trains and convenience stores are very convenient."

Is the picture at the head of this article supposed to be the typical working environment of a female in Japan?

Equal rights have become a zero-sum game in other countries which is why DEI has become so unpopular in the US and other developed nations. Equal rights has become all about punishing men.

The gender disparity at universities in the US is worse now than it was in 1972 (what was a 15% gap favouring men in 1972 is now a 17% gap favouring woman) and the wage gap only exists because for more men work in dangerous dirty jobs with high rates of injury and death. Sorry but the mostly men working on oil drilling rigs do deserve to be paid much more that the mostly woman who work do communications.

Harry_Gatto Mar. 9 11:08 pm JST

“Is the picture at the head of this article supposed to be the typical working environment of a female in Japan?“

the photo is a person reading comments and thinking, “what is wrong with these people?”

Peter NeilToday 12:18 am JST

Harry_Gatto Mar. 9 11:08 pm JST

“Is the picture at the head of this article supposed to be the typical working environment of a female in Japan?“

the photo is a person reading comments and thinking, “what is wrong with these people?”

More realistically, it's a picture of a woman thinking: "Oh no, I am underpaid compared to my male colleagues. When I get married, I will be tacitly expected to resign work to take care of my family because Japanese society expects this from me. I will spend my life preparing bentos, and my husband will often come home drunk after yet another nomikai.

Women’s Righrs Gay Rights and all other minoritie groups are all in the same boat. A bunch of old me stuck in the past with no incentive to join the modern world of inclusion. Wish Japan would take immediate and decisive steps to change. A women gay or minority should need to be aggressive or mean to get ahead. (The current stereotype of most successful groups) Join the modern world world. Women’s right Gay rights minority rights. Make Japan a leader it once was.

A small point:

On paid parental leave, Japan and South Korea "have the most generous paternity-leave policies in the OECD," except "few new fathers choose to stay at home."

This old narrative that it’s the fathers choosing not to stay at home. Could it not be that the societal pressure on them as men makes it extremely difficult to actually make that choice?

Framing.

I work for a Japanese company that has been around for over a hundred years, which means it is likely to be influenced by relatively old-fashioned, male-dominated thinking.

However, the proportion of female managers here has been steadily increasing. Both the company and the labor union seem to be actively working to improve the workplace environment for women.

Japan is certainly still developing in this area, but the situation is undeniably improving. Rather than lamenting the current state of Japan’s work environment for women, I believe we should focus on how women in countries like those in Scandinavia—where significant progress has been made—experience happiness in this regard and whether there are any social drawbacks to their system.

It's Monday...roll out the recycled "women are not equal in the workplace", "Japan's population is shrinking" and "The Japanese are xenophobic" articles...

Wow, what a groundbreaking discovery... not! This is nothing new.

Next, they'll tell us that water is wet!

LOL! Tell me about it!

Ok ok, Japan is safer and cleaner compared to many Western countries, but concerning various aspects such as work-life balance, gender equality in society and workplaces, and other aspects not strictly related to women (such as the amount and quality of free time for children, school system innovation) is decades behind.

I concur wholeheartedly.

Gaslighting at best!!

Source: Bro just trust me!

If you believe that your sex is an important deciding factor for choosing board members, you might be sexist

Not at all, you can just recognize the available evidence that has no other explanation.

Gender pay gap is a myth. 

So the experts in the field say this is clear and correct and show the evidence of it commonly happening, but nameless people on the internet say it is not because they say so, not really a counter argument.

If you had a choice between buying

1) a car that was likely to run for a long time, or

Objectifying people as an argument only proves really negative things about you.

Where are the statistics that show that Japan is one of the SAFEST places for women in the world?

How do this negates the content of this article?

Or the statistics that show that Japanese kids have some of the best manners in the world because many Japanese women CHOSE to become homemakers and mothers rather than wage slaves?

Choosing thing because you are being pressured constantly since birth to do it is not the argument you think it is.

Or that more Japanese men than women commit suicide because of work?

So you think women should be prioritized since apparently women are stronger and don't give up because of work? else this is no argument.

It's Monday...roll out the recycled "women are not equal in the workplace", "Japan's population is shrinking" and "The Japanese are xenophobic" articles...

Imagine that, a series of problems that the government say are a priority (but not really since nothing is done about them) are still problems as evidenced in this case by an international ranking. People benefit from being reminded of the unsolved social problems, that lead to progress much more than turning a blind eye and pretending everything was magically solved.

FYI, Japan has higher % of women in workforce today than any G-7 country = so much for 'housewife' theory.

One in three young Japanese women wants to get married and be a full-time housewife, a government survey has showed, despite growing calls for increased female participation in the workforce.

The poll, which quizzed more than 3,000 people aged 15-39, found 34% of unmarried women did not want to work when they settled down.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/1-in-3-japanese-women-want-to-be-housewives-poll

One in three young Japanese women wants to get married and be a full-time housewife

Which again can easily be explained as just doing as they are being expected to do. The problem is worse when women are not doing as society imposes meaning having to struggle to have a career AND fulfill all the "duties" of a housewife as well.

How objective was this study? To what extent did it start off with the assumption that Japan is "backward"? I know that I shall get nothing but thumbs-down for this, but I see the roles of men and women as overlapping but nonetheless distinct. There has long been a pernicious denigrating of "homemaking," a vastly better calling than careerism. I say that as the father of two middle-aged women who make far more money than my two middle-aged sons--but who would give it all up for the sake of family.

Which again can easily be explained as just doing as they are being expected to do

The survey cited was regarding what young Japanese women want to be

The survey cited was regarding what young Japanese women want to be

While being raised in a society with deeply entrenched social constructs about what a woman deserved to do or not. What they should aim to do and what they are expected to do even if they don't want to.

You are not refuting the argument that women are expected to want to be housewives, while men are expected to be something more, not wasting their capacities as house-husbands.

How objective was this study? 

What study are you talking about? The article reports the results of a survey, it used defined metrics to define a ranking of different countries, so there is no assumption to demonstrate anything but what the sum of those metrics will be.

There has long been a pernicious denigrating of "homemaking," a vastly better calling than careerism. 

The denigration comes not for the option itself but how some societies tend to consider this unworthy for men to have while pressuring women to have this on top of any other career they wish to have. This means that countries where being housewives is the easiest, natural, option for women would end up with a lower ranking.

Women’s Righrs Gay Rights and all other minoritie groups are all in the same boat.

Females make up 51.4% of the Japanese population. How are they a minority? (Not that minorities should receive any special treatment - they shouldn’t)