33% of major firms listed in Japan have no female executives

ushosh123Dec. 8 09:50 pm JST

The person and the position should fit together. Who you are, is heavily driven by the environment you grew up in, which clearly is different for males and females in Japan.

Exactly. We are influenced by a variety of factors in life, environmental as well as psychological.

I have a sister who owns and works a ranch in the US southwest. She is, quite literally, a cowboy. She wrangles cattle and manages a passel of hardened men who respect the hell out of her.

I have a white-collar office job in a big city and can't even ride a horse, but I navigate city life and international travel in a way that would scare the hell out of my sister.

But according to WilliB, this can't happen because all women are apparently all the same and all want the same things - babies and housework. In that view, the different environments we grew up in and our personalities apparently are not supposed to have an influence the life paths we chose. He can't even fathom that the reason my sister and I can chose such different paths is because our parents raised us in a way that allowed us to freely make our own choices.

The problem isn't that no women want these traditionally male-centered jobs. Obviously some women do - the real problem is that they are very often not given a real choice. All I am saying is that we need to create an environment where men can feel free to be househusbands, nurses, and elementary school teachers, and women feel free to be ranchers, CEOs, or yes, housewives.

It doesn't have to be 50/50. That's not the point.

WilliBDec. 8 08:45 pm JST

That is why I mentioned Peterson. He points out that the difference in choice in countries like Norway and Sweden becomes actually MORE pronounced, not less, as you mistakenly assume. You mght want to check it out yourself.

Peterson is a complete and utter quack. If you know anything about him at all, then you'll know what he's been up for the past few years since he went on sabbatical, so I don't have to write it here. You'd be better off not mentioning him to bolster your arguments.

I am well aware of the stats from Norway and Sweden, but I fail to see your point. The point is to make sure women actually have choices, instead of creating a situation where they do not have one at all.

That you felt you needed to point that out to me after I had already addressed it tells me you didn't really injest what I wrote.

It is completely related, as you can safely assume that the female percentage in dirty, exhausting, and dangerous jobs like those is close to zero. But that does not seem to be an issue..... can you explain why?

It's not related, so why do I need to comment on it? It's also a nonsensical question, like asking "Why aren't there more people who want to eat a dirt sandwich?" Because it's nasty, that's why.

You have to be careful when discussing this and differentiate between merely working in a specific field, and being a top exec in a specific field. Top executives generally require a specific personality set that men are more suited towards. And yes, there are some few women who also have the characteristics, but they are very few in number compared to men.

There are gender differences in both physical AND psychological ways. This is especially true at the extreme ends of the spectrums. Which is why more men are top executives, but also why more men are murderers. Men tend more aggressive than women, especially extremely aggressive. If you look at 100 extremely aggressive people, chances are that 95 of them are men.

This is all proven by years of research and data if you care to look.

33% of major firms listed in Japan have no female executives

I wonder if there are major firms listed in Japan which have no MALE executives and if yes, how many are they?

33% of major firms listed in Japan have no female executives

33%, where is my bag of salt ?

why limit it to major firms and listed major make up how many percent of firms in Japan.

Good way of obscuring facts and make a bad situation look good.

.

The person and the position should fit together. Who you are, is heavily driven by the environment you grew up in, which clearly is different for males and females in Japan.

girl in tokyo

Did the Cabinet office also check how many coal miners and sewage workers are female? Or how many kindergarten teachers are male?

They likely have - but why would this be included in this article, when it's an unrelated issue?

It is completely related, as you can safely assume that the female percentage in dirty, exhausting, and dangerous jobs like those is close to zero. But that does not seem to be an issue..... can you explain why?

girl in tokyo

Here's the thing. What you call "being aggressively egalitarian" is what others feel is, well, a perfectly normal state. It will be very interesting to see how the numbers of women in STEM, and the numbers of men in traditionlly "female" occupations change in countries like Norway and Sweden, where people are actually given real choices, and not faux ones like "stay home and do the housework OR work AND do all the housework."

That is why I mentioned Peterson. He points out that the difference in choice in countries like Norway and Sweden becomes actually MORE pronounced, not less, as you mistakenly assume. You mght want to check it out yourself.

WilliBDec. 7 01:50 pm JST

So what? This ridiculous PC idea that gender equality means all jobs everywhere must have an equal m/f distribution should not infest Japan too.

This comment illustrates the problem. It's not merely "being PC" to promote gender equality. It's about human rights - about giving every member of society an equal opportunity. Japan needs to recognize the value that women bring to the workplace, instead of automatically relegating them to the home as they do now.

Did the Cabinet office also check how many coal miners and sewage workers are female? Or how many kindergarten teachers are male?

They likely have - but why would this be included in this article, when it's an unrelated issue?

Fact is, different genders drift towards different occupations.

This is not a fact - it's a stereotype based on outdated modes of sexist thinking. Dare I say even misogynistic thinking?

As Jordan Peterson pointed out, that is even more pronounced in countries that are most aggressively egalitarian, like Norway and Sweden. Equal opportuny has never, and should not, mean equal outcome.

Here's the thing. What you call "being aggressively egalitarian" is what others feel is, well, a perfectly normal state. It will be very interesting to see how the numbers of women in STEM, and the numbers of men in traditionlly "female" occupations change in countries like Norway and Sweden, where people are actually given real choices, and not faux ones like "stay home and do the housework OR work AND do all the housework."

I will make a bet with you - I bet that the numbers of women in STEM-type occupations will continue to gradually rise until a close equilibrium is reached. It won't be perfectly equal; no - but that isn't the point, is it.

As for Jordan Peterson ... he is a laughing stock among his colleagues, so you really should not expect anyone to be interested in anything that quack has to say.

And............ how many foreign or black or other minority executives do they have. Even American companies are mostly J. As with women in Japan they are both not comfortable in each others presence

So what? This ridiculous PC idea that gender equality means all jobs everywhere must have an equal m/f distribution should not infest Japan too.

You are the only one saying they need an equal distribution.

Very binary of you.

33% of major firms listed in Japan have no female executives

So what? This ridiculous PC idea that gender equality means all jobs everywhere must have an equal m/f distribution should not infest Japan too.

Did the Cabinet office also check how many coal miners and sewage workers are female? Or how many kindergarten teachers are male?

Fact is, different genders drift towards different occupations. As Jordan Peterson pointed out, that is even more pronounced in countries that are most aggressively egalitarian, like Norway and Sweden. Equal opportuny has never, and should not, mean equal outcome.

Chelsea Dec. 6 08:01 pm JST

Being a woman doesn't mean they represent my values or ideas. I don't believe that having physical differences is equal to having diverse opinions. A group of men could have just as diverse opinions as one that had a mixture of men and women, as all of those people could agree or disagree regardless of sex

Women have vastly different experiences in life than men, just as sexual minorities and people of color all have vastly different experiences. Your experiences shape you, how you see the world, how you think and react. These are different perspectives - not just different opinions. That's why diversity is so incredibly valuable.

Should we be surprised by this? Man, Japan has a long way to grow; especially in Japan Inc. and the government. I tell my daughters if they want to get high up in success, Japan is not the country for you, and I explain why with plenty of evidence. Do not be afraid and don't let anyone or anything hold you back.

This show that Japanese business world had not change .

@Hiro: "Japan move(sic) slowly. Actually Asia is pretty much like this. Look at our neighbors."

Let's start with what BBC WAS asking on "2016/05/20 — With a record percentage of women legislators at 38%, could Taiwan be leading the way or female politicians in Asia?"

Don't you read other English media that have been throwing praises for that island nation? It is the most democratic nation in Asia as BBC News for one reported "Taiwan, the place to be a woman in politics." Or anywhere else as Dr. Lisa SU demonstratively  performs in California, Advanced Micro Devices.

In May, 2020, another Asian nation elected 57 women in the 300-seat National Assembly. Not Myanmar, but BTS-army nation. Hiro seems to be oblivious to what Japanese-language media are disputing women's underpresentation in society. That's why a statement like "Rushing it doesn't help but instead create more chaos," flourishes here. Yes indeed, "the major root problem is also because of the education system."

France and the UK universities produces more women medical doctors every year than men. ECB, IMF, and the World Bank have many women leaders. No wonder Japan is annually in an intimate proximity with a dictatorial nation of the peninsula, in women's social ranking by the UN, International Parliamentary Union, or the World Economic Forum. And remember how much worse Japan treats women who have raised their voices for maltreatment. One of them had to relocate to Dusseldorf, another to London. China now looks less brutal as far as Peng Shuai is concerned. Please read what Japan is talked about and keep up with the rest of the world to save her national standing from disgrace.

Personally I think women make most of the decisions for those large corporations, the men only take the credit.

Being a woman doesn't mean they represent my values or ideas. I don't believe that having physical differences is equal to having diverse opinions. A group of men could have just as diverse opinions as one that had a mixture of men and women, as all of those people could agree or disagree regardless of sex.

That photo is driving me mad.

Managers, regardless of agenda need to move as a team.

The guys need to be part of the change.

So mix and match. It works for IT.

Challenge all parties to move forward for a single purpose. It has to be thoroughly thought through.

The playing field for opportunity advancement needs to be as flat as a pancake.

I wonder how many companies are there in Japan that are run souly by woman? or a very high proportion, and how well do they preform? if there is a lot of ambitious woman out there, why dont they start a company to compete with XYZ companies.

What's the problem? Executive positions should be obtained based on merit not gender.

The problem is that these are elite level, executive positions. NOT usual salaryman type jobs. As such, they demand a level of commitment and time that very few people of either gender are willing to make. It takes a special type of person to do so, and generally speaking more men are both willing to make the sacrifice and have the personality traits necessary.

Most tests of personality traits show that men and women are broadly equal. However, men tend to gather more at both ends of the testing spectrum. Men are over-represented in both extremely driven and also extremely lazy, for example. Men tend to want to work with numbers and things more than women. Women tend to want to work with people. So chances are the actual pool of people with the characteristics for such high powered positions skews male.

For the women who can do it, I say good for them.

2022 Nobel Prize for Mathematics goes to:

Women = 50% of the population.

33% of companies don't have women executives, but 67% do.

According to those numbers, it looks like they are doing well.

(Sarcasm ends)

Why can't we judge people by what's between their ears rather than what's between their legs?

33% have no female executives.......so that means the other 66% do have female execs.....this might be unpopular but......isn't that.......a decent amount? Assuming that there's an almost 50-50 split of men to women in the population at large. Of course I understand it's not 66% of companies have an even split of men to women execs, I'm sure it won't be anywhere close.

I know Japan is overtly paternalistic and the whole society is still skewed to the old traditional gender roles and that those women who want to work and are ambitious to get on at work have major problems doing so.

Personally I would love to trade places, stay home, cook clean and look after any kids I may have. More power to ya if you wanna go out and work....I don't. I do....but only out of economic necessity, if I had a choice/ didn't need to, then I would not be getting up at sparrow fart every day to go to work.

All readers back on topic please. The story is about executive positions.

Japan was 2nd economy in the world for decades without having female executives.

Would it have been 1st if female executive power would have been in place ?

What is funny is that if you know Japan, ladies are for a lot of them very happy not undergoing the hardship of seniority harassment like men have to.

What people and particularly women want is full time contract.

In my time working in Japan, management had promoted the first female manager (clever). She told me herself she did not wish to climb more the ladder.

One of my colleague (male) was forces to get promoted and his wellbeing got shot down there on.

Some ladies had strong positions in accountability but were not managers.

All was just an optimization for general output performance, with no happiness inside.

My conclusion : Being an economy superpower with rather a limited population size is detrimental to the wellbeing of its people.

Can't have the cake and eat it.

I would like men and women treated equally and equally regarded following their human skills too, which are not the same, and be asked about their wish by HR.

So far from it for Japan.

"It's very rare that women are willing to put in the time and energy to get those positions. They'd generally rather spend time raising children."

"[...] females don’t want to work in the steel or pulp industries or don’t have any CEO level qualifications"

"Trying so hard to push women to do things they're not interested in isn't a successful strategy. This will result in promoting incompetent individuals merely based on their reproductive organs."

"Paucity of ambition has to be another contributing factor"

The amount of misogynistic comments in this section is ASTONISHING. The upvotes on these also are a concern. Is this really how most of you think? You're missing the bigger picture here.

Women already do all of those jobs.

No they don't, they are overwhelmingly done by men

If they're overwhelmingly done by men, that means that there are some women doing htem. Which means that you agree with the posters assertion that there are women in these jobs.

If you say 'everyone should only be hired based on their qualifications', such as having executive experience, and there are no female executives, they can never be chosen for the job, as there is no way for them to get said experience.

So there's something to be said for hiring a few people for diversity over qualifications, so as to give them the opportunity to gain those qualifications. That doesn't mean you should hire any person exclusively because they are a minority, but it may mean giving a slightly less qualified person a position over a more qualified person at times.

I've done it. I've hired minorities who were skilled and I thought would make good candidates, over people who were a little more qualified than them.

Again just partial data. How can we know how many companies don’t have male executives? Maybe its 67%? :) I am just kidding.

Uhhhh . . . Women already do all of those jobs. 

No they don't, they are overwhelmingly done by men, but you can hear crickets from the left when dirty hands jobs are mentioned, suddenly equality of outcome isn't important them.

Those 33% companies should be forced to hire at least one female executive!

Next step is one foreign executive at each of that place to even better diverse the values.

Why stop there?. 1 disabled exec, 1 gay, 1 bi, 1 transgender both ways, and don't forget the pansexuals. You see my point, it's a neverending rabbit hole.

Would love to see some percentage info, I bet the percentage of women in higher up positions may well exceed that of men now, this going for 50/50 is BS for many reasons

Women and yes men, in may cases are seen but not heard.

That's radical, not racial.

Japan has production methods and skills that are second to none the quality is beyond comparison.

Yet that cannot be said for recognizing that contribution in rewards, pay and conditions.

It top down, not bottom up.

Management tasks, are delegated, not owned.

It a perverse pass the parcel, dependent on seniority.

The layers of middle management function to justify there own existence.

The workforce are a mere after thought.

Few women aspire to reach such levels and so some do basef on theur SKILLS. 

Amazing.

So. And?

Stunnig how it doesn't dawn on some that it's a numbers/averages game.

Few women aspire to reach such levels and so some do basef on theur SKILLS.

Some/most women prefer to bear children and be stay at home moms.

True story. Deal with it.

but not in doing the specific business of that company like for example operating the CNC machine,

I disagree. There are plenty of women working in manufacturing and assembly in Japan and other countries and are sought after because of their attention to detail. This is particularly true in electronics. Women are the backbone of many small and medium size businesses in Japan.

The topic is women in executive positions.

@girl-in-tokyo

The problem is twofold: severe corporate culture that treats workers like robots, and sexism that paints women as somehow less interested and less capable than men.

Well said.

Maybe females don’t want to work in the steel or pulp industries or don’t have any CEO level qualifications?

What's the point? It should be 50/50?

Not sure. I wouldn't say that it should be 50/50, but if someone were to say that the current 94/6 is out of whack I'd be inclined to agree with that point.

Yes, they are quite better in administrative or non-operational tasks like investing the company’s money in stocks , changing the company atmosphere etc, but not in doing the specific business of that company like for example operating the CNC machine, and they are much harder cost cutters and performers than Ghosn ever could be and also have much higher creativity for some new product lines , design improvements and such. So your physically hard ‘male’ job is much safer, and you also get nice decorated lunch tables and cleaner comfortable toilets for your break times, but your salary is probably halved in a few years and invested into other stocks and coins instead, out of reach for any employee or other board members, only still visible as a good black number in the news, and before tax. lol

Whoever is evaluated to be best in those positions will be selected regardless of their gender or diversity background. Stats are useless, meaningless and trying to reach a goal in there is nonsense.

To promote someone just because of their gender or diversity background without regard to what they can really contribute is misleading. For certain companies and industries, roles are open to everyone that meet the hiring criteria. Should they be able to stay on and climb the corporate ladder, gender diversity would be naturally chosen. That might not be the case in many companies here especially in manufacturing and engineering etc…

What's the point? It should be 50/50?

Gender promoting is unlikely to be resolved until the Nenkō joretsu system is snuffed out, obliterated.

This will require racial structural and cultural change to labor laws that allow a two tier contractual labor market.

Simply put recognizing the difference between the low pay of a part time employee, mostly associated with female administrative office work .

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1995/10/art2full.pdf

And those on permanent employment contracts.

In many cases and sectors both have the same responsibilities but remuneration/salary is shamefully, unequal.

Promoting is seniority based, no hint of merit skill orientated.

My business over a period of some 5/6 years made wholesale changes to new employment contracts.

I will not show any remorse for some of the tactics to purge the businesses of the cultural practices.

New HR practices took a scythe through middle management.

Some were made to feel extremely uncomfortable, no more delegating and moving fist fulls of paperwork across a desk.

Employees irrespective age or gender were promote solely on a merit based system over the top of seniority.

All emplyees were offered full support. Both in counseling and training.

I wont pretend some were left feeling shellshocked

@Ricky - Agreed. Twenty-plus years putting in life- and soul-destroying overtime just to have a chance at becoming an executive (with a much higher chance of stalling in lower/middle management); most women are too smart for this and know it was a mug's game from the beginning.

So? What? And? Who cares? People who do the job best should be in those positions. It's very rare that women are willing to put in the time and energy to get those positions. They'd generally rather spend time raising children.

If only that were true. Japan is mysogynistic culture. Interview the CEO or the Chairman and you’ll understand why their companies don’t have women execs.

Most of the 67% that have a female executive get there by appointing an outside director that is female. It's just a box-ticking exercise.

Is it because women are too smart to subjugate themselves and be a desk warming yesman for twenty years in order to rise in the ranks of J corporate culture? The ‘how to be as useless as your risk fearing, expediency worshipping boss’ manual just doesn’t hold much value for these pragmatic ladies. They get smart and go off and start a family. That’s where the real joy in life is anyways.

Paucity of ambition has to be another contributing factor :)

To get more women to take up executive positions here, Japan is going to have to do a huge overhaul on their corporate culture and society, both of which still paint women as housewives and mothers.

Companies don't want to invest in their female employees because of the misogynistic and archaic views that once they get married and pregnant, they'll quit or are expected to quit.

Japanese society still isolates women to the domestic sphere, thereby conditioning them from young not to strive to climb the corporate ladder. This results in women lacking ambition for executive positions and those who are forced or moved to such positions usually don't do well because they lack the motivation.

Japan can't just allocate a bunch of women to executive positions and hope to balance out the numbers between men and women. They first need to address the prevalent sexual and gender discrimination that runs like a plague through all aspects of their business and societal cultures.

Women = 50% of the population.

33% of companies don't have women executives, but 67% do.

According to those numbers, it looks like they are doing well.

You don't quite seem to understand the math there.

The average listed corporation on the TSX has about 10 directors and 6 auditors (though this varies according to the corporate form, some have no auditors). 33% of companies are 0 for 16 (on average), and even at the other 67% females are by far in the minority: less than 6% of all directors at listed companies in Japan are female.

You might think that is fine, but don't BS the math.

Women only make up about 8-9% of garbage collectors (in the US) - that’s an issue that needs immediate attention.

See how silly that sounds?

Surely as off topic as my comment ?

It's not just a major sexism issue, it's a major economic problem if half your population is not being utilised fully.

Must we work everyone to the bone to support enormous wealth of equity fund parent firms?

Going down the road to hell with latchkey kids having little parental influence as mom and dad work themselves to death "for the company."

Women won't succeed in the workplace until corporate culture changes. No one wants to work 150 hours of overtime a month, and for women, who also have the double burden of housework and childcare, it's impossible. And when women must leave the office early or take time off to care for children or take maternity leave, not only is their commitment to the job questioned, their desire to work is itself questioned.

Then people begin to make claims about "what women want", as if rejecting working the double shift of overtime and childcare, and instead choosing to be a housewife, somehow means women don't have any ambition and actually PREFER childcare to working.

What each individual woman wants is subjective. But for some reason women are seen as a monolith who are all mainly interested in cosmetics and babies and shopping and eating lunch with their friends. This ignores the scores of ambitious women who work hard but are then treated as office decorations because it is assumed they will quit anyway.

And it's not as if men wouldn't make the same choices as women if they had the opportunity. Wouldn't men rather not work 150 hours of overtime, and instead have time to stay at home with their kids and time to indulge their hobbies?

Why is it that women's interests get labled as less-than, as if being interested in cosmetics over cars is somehow less intellectual and indicates a lack of ambition? And the fact that men would like to spend time playing with their kids just plain gets ignored.

The problem is twofold: severe corporate culture that treats workers like robots, and sexism that paints women as somehow less interested and less capable than men.

Good luck solving that one, Japan.

When I came back to work here in the 90s, many used to ask me what gave me the biggest culture shock, like taking off your shoes in the house or Japanese style toilets or such dribble.

I'd honestly answer that I found the sexual discrimination here to be the biggest shocker and it'd usually go quiet.

There had been hardly any progress from when I had been here earlier in the 70s, while in the US at the same time saw a meteoric rise in gender equality.

These numbers are far better than three decades ago but they're still not very good. A huge waste of brain power esp. since so many women here are highly educated and capable. I've seen so many of the brightest women relegated to the low track of companies and would eventually leave due to it.

rainydayToday  08:00 am JST

The rate of major firms with no female executives has steadily declined from 62.0 percent in 2017

The number has declined so radically in 4 years that I would be curious what proportion of companies have just one female executive. Seems likely that most are appointing a token part time outside female director as window dressing who won’t be able to change anything.

Exactly my thoughts. Look for the percentage of companies where women make the actual decisions.

The Cabinet Office publishes data on the number and ratio of female executives at companies listed in Japan on its website. It started disclosing a list of firms with zero female executives in 2020.

Because of this. Just hire a woman for a lower executive position with no say on anything, and done.

So? What makes you think that "gender equality" means 50% of executives must be female?

Equality of outcome is the great lie the left have repeated so much they think it's become fact, same as the gender pay gap. 5 minutes common sense and they will see they have been sold lies.

The only shocking part about this is how low the number 33% is.

I’m surprised it isn’t at least 69%.

But it is true that if you have a female on the board, the company makes more money. Only men on the board makes less money statistically speaking.

Emasculated men have an unhealthy obsession with being controlled by females. Ask a women in any competitive office if she would prefer a male or female boss, 9/10 times I bet she would go for a male.

Lots of misogynist vibes in these comments, not surprised sadly.

@Lindsay

They don’t want those pesky women putting their logical ideals and modern work ethics into their golf days.

Not really. Most of these companies did not start hiring women out of college for career-track positions until the mid to late 90s. As those trailblazers enter their 50s over the next decade, they’ll start to take on executive roles.

The rate of major firms with no female executives has steadily declined from 62.0 percent in 2017

The number has declined so radically in 4 years that I would be curious what proportion of companies have just one female executive. Seems likely that most are appointing a token part time outside female director as window dressing who won’t be able to change anything.

Things takes times and eventually you just have to slowly adjust to changes. Japan move slowly. Actually Asia is pretty much like this. Look at our neighbors.

Rushing it doesn't help but instead create more chaos. Just like when Abe had nominated several females into his administration only to lose them 1 by 1 due to several reasons.

And the major root problem is also because of the education system. Which girl you see these day dream of being a company executive? Most are interest in the service, luxury or cosmetic industry. Major companies in Japan are car companies or industrial industry. You see any of them being interested going into that?

It is believed that if more women are involved in corporate decision-making, diverse values will be better reflected in the management of a company

This is exactly why there are few women in executive roles. “The mail that stands up must be hammered down.” They don’t want those pesky women putting their logical ideals and modern work ethics into their golf days.