Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Although five years have passed since the Abe administration announced the intention of strengthening women's participation in the labour market as part of a national growth strategy, there has been no increase in Japan.Rather, the ranking of Japan in the Global Gender Gap reports has declined year by year: 101st out of 145 in 2015, 111th out of 144 in 2016, and 114th out of 144 in 2017 (World Economic Forum, 2015; 2016; 2017).The Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace came into force in 2016 April to strengthen the Abe administration's growth strategy in relation to the female workforce.According to this law, companies which have over 301 employees, as well as central and local governments, are required to draw up and publish a "Plan" for promoting women employees into managerial positions and providing a supporting environment, with targeted numbers: the aim is to have 30% of female managers by 2020 (Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office, 2016: 28).However, there is a big gap between the aims announced by the government and the actual situation in Japan -although only two years have passed since this law came into force, hence its effects cannot yet be seen.According to the Japanese lifetime employment system, it is important how long one has been employed at a company: the term Kinzoku stands for the number of years one remains at one company as an employee: other specific terms include Ippan-syoku and Sogo-syoku; Ippan meaning "General" in English, and Sogo meaning "Integration/Comprehensive" (Syoku generally means "job").The notion of Ippan-syoku was born after the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was enacted in 1985.Due to this law, companies could not discriminate in terms of the wages paid to male employees who were expected to become managers and those paid to female employees who were expected 1
Author: Aki Iida
Institution: Corvinus University of Budapest
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2912867018