Japan to require listed firms to disclose female manager ratio

No your not being realistic because i clearly stated that men and women are not equal.

Yet in other countries women are a much higher percentage of managers compared to the woeful number in Japan. Are women in Japan particularly feeble and if so, why? Are they encouraged by a male dominated society to be high-pitched servants?

Men are the predominate gender that choose to study and work in STEM positions. Men are not to blame for that.

Did you miss the scandal of the Tokyo Medical School, by any chance?

And next year the number of disabled, LGBTQ and left handed managers?

Given that women will be grossly under represented in management positions, can you give any reason why this would be, other than giving facile whatabouteries?

And why shouldn't the above groups be equally represented? Do you have concern about barriers to the above groups getting management grades, as there clearly are for women?

Personally I never found my left handedness an obstacle, except at Japanese calligraphy.

We should set goals for gender equality for bricklayers and construction workers, too. 99.9% are men. Let’s force women to equally do the dirty, hard labor that men do.

As you know full well, bricklaying is a physically demanding job that few women could do. However, there is no such physical restriction that should prevent a woman being a manager.

Running through the first few comments, I see that it is one of the first of this kind of facile argument.

Good work.

can = can’t.

As long as everyone has the same opportunity, the results will be what they are.

Tallying results doesn’t do anything. If women, or anyone, choose to study or pursue a different field, you can force results.

Men are the predominate gender that choose to study and work in STEM positions. Men are not to blame for that.

Umbrella

Sorry but women and men can never be totally equal and nor do they want to be.

Its an impossibility.

In fact people in general are not equal either.

Equal opportunity is the issue here.

Letsberealistic

No your not being realistic because i clearly stated that men and women are not equal.

It helps if you pay attention to details .

@yotomaya

I don’t oppose such a move either and welcome it. But it’s not gonna come about from forcing companies to adhere to silly quotas. It will do more harm than good. It will take innovation and time.

that’s life… One of the companies I started is NOT something that I really want to do. But it’s profitable so I do it.

We ALL have to make sacrifices to be successful one way or another. It’s not an easy road for men either.

I see plenty are still watching Jordan Peterson on here. Is he still a thing? 

Whats wrong with Jordan Peterson?

DPOTI

I believe in total equality. Women too should be allowed to give up their lives to their companies and have no free time at all. They should be allowed to do all the same hard jobs such as construction the same as men. They should be allowed to join the SDF/army and fight and die the same as men. Equality in everything.

@Kenchi

Again, good for you it's working out. I work various jobs and am mostly self-employed now as well. Can't complain for myself.

At the same time, I don't oppose a move towards a society where this isn't what it takes. Not everyone can or wants to be self-employed. And nobody should have to make that choice to not be treated unfairly.

Yotomaya

I don’t agree or disagree with it. it’s just simply the way that it is.

Rather than stomping my feet in protest I chose to deal with it by becoming self-employed. I have two companies (coincidentally all my staff that I hired are women) and work remotely for an overseas company for a third. I am doing much better for myself than I would have had I stayed in a Japanese company I worked for before.

plenty of young women Who aren’t satisfied where they are chose to deal with it in a similar manner and they are becoming successful and they are increasing. I suspect those companies will be very different than those that you complain about.

if things are gonna change, that’s how they will change.

It’s of no use to discuss the many gender differences away of which many are biological and won’t ever disappear only because of some wishes, phantasy or paper decisions. What really is needed is that the matchmaking becomes better, for the individual, for the company and for the society. The best fitting persons into their best fitting jobs and hierarchy positions, that is the only necessary process to be optimized.

You would have to work twice as hard to move up within a Japanese company and understandably so.

What you're describing is discrimination. And you say it's actually a good (or at least understandable) thing.

I'm not a native speaker of Japanese but got employed because I can speak the language well enough to communicate at a "business" level in written and spoken form and because I can speak other languages too. I don't want to get into more detail, but I did have skills others didn't have, but it was made pretty clear to me I need to be grateful to even be part of the group, let alone demand being treated equally.

I'm not sure how owning land is related to any of this, but the idea that it should be an advantage or precondition for being treated equally is inherently classist.

You can make (and people do make) similar arguments for discriminating against women. What if she gets pregnant and leaves the groups for a few years? What if she changes her mind about being loyal to us rather than her family? And aren't they too emotional to be in managerial positions?

I'm not a woman, but I think this and other experiences make workplace discrimination a very relatable topic. Also, I'm a racial minority in my country of origin, so it's not that the experience was completely new to me. "Work twice as hard to get the same result" is something I've heard many times before and I'd like to live in a world where as few people as possible have to accept it.

Kenchi

Your viewpoint is myopic.

With the way the world is changing Japanese are at a disadvantage because they cant use the English language properly.

Prejudices and discrimination are the greatest weakness that Japan has.

Japan isn't a highly developed nation.

Sooner or later you will realize that the English language is the dominant communication method of the modern world and Japan is much lower on the totem pole than it chooses to admit.

Peter Neil

Should we force men to grow babies in their wombs also ?

There are physically weak men and physically weak women.

However there are also physically strong people.

Its whether or not the task CAN be performed and NOT what gender should be doing it.

Women and Men are not equal but both deserve equal opportunity.

Construction can be done by either Men or Women .

@peter

it’s true Owned and run

It’s amazing how many small and medium size companies in Japan are run by women managers.

Yotomaya

there are many factors that would contribute to your own case

Are you fluent and can speak Japanese natively? Do you own your own house land and or have many Financial obligations here in Japan that would keep you here for life? If not than you are at a disadvantage because you are not Japanese. You would have to work twice as hard to move up within a Japanese company and understandably so. Why would a Japanese company invest so much in a staff member who could leave at the drop of a hat? That’s just a realistic expectation.

My wife’s case started after she returned to the workforce after our children were in school. My wife isn’t lucky. She would take offense to that comment. she worked damn hard. Look had nothing to do with it. At least not in the traditional sense…

no, I wouldn’t expect that younger Japanese women would have an easy time rising to executive levels if there was a danger of them leaving the company for a few years for maternity. Just like in your case, why would a Japanese company invest so much in a staff member that is going to leave? it doesn’t make sense to me…

Those are the sacrifices I am referring to.

realistically, entrepreneurship is the answer here I think everyone is looking for.

in a bid to increase female leaders in the country's male-dominated corporate world.

Why not increase competent leaders, regardless of male or female gender?

It's the corporate world, not Disney World.

JimizoToday  10:50 am JST

I see plenty are still watching Jordan Peterson on here. Is he still a thing? I thought he was a bit passé these days.

Dr. Peterson is great. He used to teach at the Kremlin on the Charles.

Wanted, women for senior and managerial positions - no previous experience necessary

Delirious.

Wanted, women for senior and managerial positions--- no previous experience necessary.

That's great that she did so well, but clearly, the purpose of this law is to make it so women don't have to work harder to get the same position as men. 

I totally agree with you. I certainly don’t think there should be any kind of law that is described above.

You would have no arguments for me there.

my whole point is that this kind of law is unnecessary. if you want to encourage females in management or executive positions then it’s the females that should be influenced and not the companies.

Seen it before where companies token hire and gives these hires "management" titles that really don't do what their title suggests but count to the ratio.

Some examples:

"Chief wellness officer" = HR manager

"Chief people officer" = Account manager / Sales

"Chief excellence officer" (yes I have seen it) = Sales coach

Men get boosted up to aforementioned positions because of favoritism, the Boys Club, nepotism, etc.

While I agree it may be a contributing factor, do you have any stats or sources to prove this claim or is it speculation?

It’s blindingly obvious that it would be hard to get stats on this.

Speaking from personal experience, I worked at a large Japanese manufacturing company which saw many eminently qualified and able women leave to start their own businesses, join more forward-thinking companies and in some cases move abroad. There was a sense that the old guard had a boys club culture of the private universities like Keio. That said, was a sense that things were changing after the old guard started getting stripped of their titles.

There were also women who just didn’t want the long hours and stress of management positions, but again, the culture of working 60 hours plus in management positions was starting to see cracks in the last few years.

I saw more cause for optimism coming from cultural change rather than steps like the one mentioned in the article, although I don’t see it as a bad thing.

Those in support of this I’m sure will pipe in in droves after they’ve had their prioritized appropriate beauty sleep and put their makeup on. lol

Hilarious.

I see plenty are still watching Jordan Peterson on here. Is he still a thing? I thought he was a bit passé these days.

Let’sberealistic

haha projecting

I “would” belittle those who think that someone could be given a special chance just because they belong to a certain group without earning it. and they would deserve it

but what I said was just a lighthearted joke.

that’s the thing about comedy I guess… not everyone would think it would be funny ;)

@Kenchi

Good for your wife. Many aren't that lucky though. I personally know women who struggled quite a lot, especially after they dared to take maternity leave. Also, I wonder how much harder than others she had to work to achieve the same goals.

I have, as a non-Japanese, worked for a company with absolutely no ability to move upwards while my Japanese counterparts kept getting raises and promotions. I know it's similar for women in many companies, where routinely women get more frequently hourly contracts and their employment is treated as "baito" by their employee and society alike.

One woman being successful doesn't mean it works for everyone equally. I mean, there are women politicians here, but that doesn't undo deep flaws in the system.

The system works

as I mentioned above, my wife is proof of that.

She started as a part timer at the very bottom of the company. She didn’t even graduate from a proper university.

She worked incredibly hard and proved herself time and time again. And gradually she rose to an executive position (third down from the CEO) within a division of her company. In fact, she is the division head of the division she is in. And this company is a very traditional Japanese company.

She had to make some sacrifices to get where she did and it wasn’t easy and there was lots of competition. It was the same sacrifices that others had to make.

if more women want to be in management or executive roles, they will have to work their butts off and make the same sacrifices as their counterparts do.

if they do, they will be rewarded.

@Let’sberealistic

yes, it was a lighthearted joke. I should know, I made it.

but feel free to be as offended by it as much as you want…

This will result in females given ‘executive’ titles but no executive duties. Tatemae and form-over-function is alive and well in a certain country.

Wanted: Female Senior Managers who can also serve tea

I believe the FSA has as much credibility in its statements as the CDC.

Are businesses being provided guidance over inquiring as to gender preference? So that business are not placed in any unfortunate human resource difficulties later on?

What's the point? What was the ratio Womenomics wanted to achieve, to then lower that ratio down?

It's a nice gesture but we know this is just more lip-service.

What, you don’t believe in equality?

For what?

All they will do is give women “fake” titles, yet still be under a “man’s” watch.

Saw this many a time in companies.

The swiss based think tank has holes in it.

Even tho the article claims to supposedly increase female management positions through possible mandatory disclosure .

It also sounds as if females are being unfairly scrutinized and their equal rights not recognized.

Once again female's are being unfairly targeted .

Such a measure in itself won't imho make that much of a different. Affordable and accessible childcare so that women don't have to chose between career and family, normalised paternity leave, less toxic and more equal work environment are other things needed to support people who don't fit the description of the "erai hito", i.e. old ethnically Japanese workaholic man.

Are they the best able to do that job?

To a lot of people, the answer is automatically no if it's a woman applying. Hence the measure.

There should be one and one only criteria for any job... Are they the best able to do that job?

In a fair and just world yes. But let's not pretend that all these men got up the corporate ladder on pure talent, skill, and merit. Women are far less likely to get managerial and executive positions simply because they're women. Men get boosted up to aforementioned positions because of favoritism, the Boys Club, nepotism, etc.

Samit

absolutely not true.

My wife is a female executive and she’s 100% Japanese

She has proven herself and she works her ass off just like her male counter parts within the company. That’s what you have to be willing to do

What's the point, Japanese corporate culture doesn't allow female executives, unless they are imported Western executives.

Those in support of this I’m sure will pipe in in droves after they’ve had their prioritized appropriate beauty sleep and put their makeup on. lol

it’s lite-hearted comedy folks… don’t take my comment too seriously ;)

There should be one and one only criteria for any job... Are they the best able to do that job?

We all know that the current "criteria" isn't based on merit either. The old boys club place one of their old kyabakura friends to replace one that's retiring. A meritocracy wouldn't consistently produce such abysmal results. Though, I am sure the female "executives" will be chosen to be window dressings by the same kyabakura gang.

And next year the number of disabled, LGBTQ and left handed managers?

There should be one and one only criteria for any job... Are they the best able to do that job?

The FSA has said research showed a company tends to perform better when it has a higher female manager ratio.

On of the reason it's simple, higher all male manager ratio will tend to do overtime which usually means that company is becoming less efficient. All male manager have no idea that there is life after office hour which any company should aware like taking your house, family and children

Under the Japanese financial watchdog's plan, the listed companies must now also disclose details such as the average pay by gender and the ratio of male workers who took child care leave.

But the watchdogs will still be asleep when it comes to many company's using employees unpaid overtime and other wage theft.

We should set goals for gender equality for bricklayers and construction workers, too. 99.9% are men. Let’s force women to equally do the dirty, hard labor that men do.