TOKYO —

Japanese major companies are still far behind those in other countries in appointing women to boards of directors, U.S.-based nonprofit group Corporate Women Directors International said Tuesday. The organization said women hold only 17 seats, or 1.4%, on the boards of directors of the top 100 Japanese companies out of a total 1,198 board positions as of June 30, 2009.

But the rate marked a significant increase compared with that in 1998, when only two of the 100 largest companies had women on their boards, the group said. The figure places Japan ‘‘well below’’ all the industrialized economies and the country ranks 30th of 35 countries for which data is available on women directors, the group said. While the group’s co-chair, Irene Natividad, cited cultural reasons behind Japan’s low percentage of women on corporate boards, she said there is also a structural problem that limits women’s participation on the boards.
   

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10 Comments

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  ca1ic0cat at 05:20 AM JST - 11th November

  This is not a surprise to anybody here, is it?

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  Darren White at 08:52 AM JST - 11th November

  Of course career-minded Japanese women work for non-Japanese companies because they are discriminated against in the majority of Japanese companies.

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  Altria at 10:47 AM JST - 11th November

  If I was running a company in Japan, I'd go out of my way to recruit women and the people who were unlucky enough to graduate during the hiring freeze a few years back. So much wasted talent out there, and I bet they'd work hard as well.

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  stirfry at 03:08 PM JST - 11th November

  this hardly qualifies as 'news', except for people born last night

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  thomyorke at 04:05 PM JST - 11th November

  Yeah, this has been known to everyone for decades, but its not a bad thing to remind people that hey, its still not getting any better.

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  ThonTaddeo at 09:37 PM JST - 11th November

  Keep in mind that while women are underrepresented at the very top, so are they all the way at the bottom -- the gender ratio of employees worked to death or driven to suicide from overwork is similar to the 1.4% women seen here. The kings are all men, but so are the slaves.

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  combinibento at 09:41 PM JST - 11th November

  The figure places Japan ‘‘well below’’ all the industrialized economies and the country ranks 30th of 35 countries for which data is available on women directors, the group said.

  Yeah, but Japan also places first in terms of appointing women as "image girls" and "campaign girls," whereas men are rarely, if ever, appointed to such lucrative positions. Surely this evens things out, no?

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  dolphingirl at 09:58 PM JST - 11th November

  A few more non-shocking stats: In Japan, only 25% of businesses have women in senior management (the lowest worldwide) and the percentage of women in senior management roles is only 7% (also the lowest)

  Now I'd like to hear what steps they are taking to change this.

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  stirfry at 05:10 PM JST - 13th November

  Now I'd like to hear what steps they are taking to change this.

  none. ever.

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  jyankenpon at 01:09 AM JST - 18th November

  It's no surprise of course, if you ask 100 young - middle-aged J woman what their life ambition is 95 of them will answer "to get married and have kids". And the other 5 are either eccentric or just fibbing.

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