OECD raps Japan female underemployment as waste of human resources

Thursday 03rd July, 06:51 AM JST

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LFRAgain at 11:30 AM JST - 3rd July

what a load of rubbish. If I am an employer and I interview man and woman, and if man is more suitable for the job, i will hire him. end of story.

And if a woman was more suitable for the job, you'd hire her as well, end of story. Right?
Zen_Builder at 11:34 AM JST - 3rd July

Forgot to add.

When a woman chooses and employer she should also look maternity-leave, return after child-birth, etc policies. Same way a Man should ask about paternity-leave, etc.

If a company cant get skilled workers due to bad policies they will need to change to remain competitive.
Spanishwoman at 11:42 AM JST - 3rd July

Zen Builder,

I agree with your points of view. About the paternity leave, did you know it was introduced in Spain last year? The father has a leave of 15 days to stay together (helping but also enjoying) with the mother and child those important first 2 weeks of their lives.

It's very new, so the lengh of the leave is still subject to change, but it's a first move.

By the way, we have a Ministry for Gender Equality :)

Greetings.
Zen_Builder at 11:46 AM JST - 3rd July

Spanishwoman.

I got 3 days(from the goverment) and also 2 weeks of paternity leave. Loved it also helped my wife with post-partum depression.

Many european countries(mine included) now got paternity leave and also offer flex-time, reduced hours and working from home.
Zybster at 12:51 PM JST - 3rd July

Spanishwoman, I hear you and I agree very much with you. In my family we could live just on my income, but my wife chooses to work for similar reasons to yours. My point is that just gathering some numbers, which in themselves may be correct, may not necessarily show you the reasons for such a phenomenon.

There was this boy who caught a fly. He wanted to make some experiments on it, so first he broke off it's wings. Then, he put the fly on its legs and said, "Walk." The fly walked. So he broke off one leg, and he said again, "walk". He broke off all legs, one by one, and after he broke off the 6th leg he said again, "Walk." This time the fly didn't. So the conclusion of his experiment was "After breaking off the 6th leg the fly looses its hearing."

That seems the be the conclusion of this "research". They have all the data, just can't really evaluate it. While there is sexism, ageism etc in Japan, there are many women here who dod not work because of their own choice. I just met two of them, who graduated from universities, are proud of it, and who simply prefer not working for a company. Blame it on Japan.
keech2 at 12:51 PM JST - 3rd July

Zen, Congrats on the paternity leave. Not all that common. Glad you could take it.

I agree that apart from breastfeeding both parents can do an equally good job raising a child. I was a happy stay-at-home dad for over a year.(Actually, I worked part-time in the evenings.) When I quit my dayjob, the boss looked at me like I was crazy and tried to convince me that I should continue working, even if my wife made more money than me. It simply wasn't manly to be a stay-at-home dad in his opinion. When a Japanese friend of mine decided to stay home with his new daughter and quit his job, his father told his wife, who is Canadian, to divorce his son. It was obvious to the old man that his son was lazy and not a real man(his words). Until this kind of attitude is changed, I don't think there will be many men in Japan talking paternity leave of any kind for any length of time.
yasukuni at 01:35 PM JST - 3rd July

Remember that there are still men in Japan who tell their wives to not work, preferring them to look after the house instead. Also, there are still women who go to university (even graduate school level) simply to better their chances of marrying a "better" class of man. So a proportion of the women at university - including those studying to be doctors, will be in the workforce just until they get married.

Funny though how many single educated women there are out there who refused the advances of guys who weren't at the right level of education and status, who are now desperate to get married! But the ones I know would leave the workforce in a heartbeat if they snagged a guy who could support them.

As for the obasan types, many of them would only work if they absolutely had to. Why work when hubby foots the bill for lunches, English lessons and Yon Sama events.
Cos at 01:40 PM JST - 3rd July

@Spanishwoman

"I really don't think that it is a priviledge to have the choice of being unemployed because double income is not needed. "

"Choice of your lifestyle" is a privilege very few people have on this planet.

"I don't work because we need double income. My husband gets enough money for the two of us but I have a job "

This is your choice. I work only 1/4 of full time, just to get enough money. I have many other interesting activities to do in my spare time : activism, volunteer work, helping others, creating stuff. I have much more freedom in my private activities than in any possible "job for money".

"I am not sure that being unemployed is "their choice". It's rather the choice of the society for women."

I am not sure being a career woman is "your choice" then. "Working" is the choice of society for human beings.
westurn at 04:26 PM JST - 3rd July

Women remain second class citizens here in Japan. This story simply reinforces what many of us already know... the Japanese actively practice sexist attitudes and behaviours... end of story.
lilalia at 08:34 PM JST - 3rd July

answer to TokyoGas at 09:24 AM JST - 3rd July

"
I remember reading about the annual company hiring of university graduates and some companies stated that they wanted to hire, something like, 1,000 males and 75 females. I always that that was so unfair and could not get my head around how they could plan on hiring so many guys and just a few women."

but think how many woman comparing to man are in the universities ? I have done a masters in a japanese univesity and in a 400 students faculty there was only ONE japanese girl, all other japanese where boys !
jonobugs at 10:31 PM JST - 3rd July

How about the working conditions in Japan tend to lean towards overworking all employees until they are stressed out.

If a person doesn't have to work, then they probably won't (in those conditions at least). Not everyone loves their job.

If Japan truly wants to increase it's work force, then they should do something about the working conditions, especially for the female workers.
WilliB at 10:57 PM JST - 3rd July

" "I don't work because we need double income. My husband gets enough money for the two of us but I have a job " "

OK? The test for this statement is: Would you also work without pay? If not, than stop making up justifications. It is still about the money, either the need for it or the perceived need. Those who can truly afford it do not spend their days working for others.
ThonTaddeo at 11:03 PM JST - 3rd July

Jonobugs, I agree. Women are smart enough to take advantage of the privilege of not having to work. I'm sure the government would love to have everyone working from morning until night and paying lots of taxes -- if you can escape this rat race, you should do it! Most women realize that slaving away for a corporation is a sucker's game and they wisely shift their focus to the much more mentally-rewarding activity of raising their children.

This is why companies prefer to hire male graduates -- they can work them to the bone without having to worry about them leaving to focus on their family life!

Life is not easy for the salaryman. Remember, for every woman that dies of overwork, roughly 30 men are worked to their deaths. Yet all the media ever does is talk about discrimination againt women.

Solve the male karoshi problem and you'll start a virtuous cycle of good things -- fathers being with their families, fathers working fewer hours and opening more jobs for women, well-adjusted kids with two parents in the home, etc., etc.
gogogo at 11:29 AM JST - 4th July

The system is messed up, your entire life is set out for you in Japan. You're suppose to study hard to get into a good school so you can get into a good job so you can meet a nice guy (before you're 25!), marry and then leave the company.
Patto at 03:43 PM JST - 9th July

The comments so far seem to be focused on the perceived privelege of not having to work, suggesting that many here are so unhappy with their jobs they would prefer the trivialization of involuntary homemaking. I think many people are unaware of what the OECD is criticizing in Japan. I am surprised not to see many commenters talking about personal experiences with this, so here goes. Dynamic women find ways to accomplish things despite real barriers. One woman I know established a company and hired a guy to be the "president" (because he has the apparently requisite physiology), and she accompanies him to the banks, etc., as his simpering assistant. Another highly competent woman headed a government-affiliated NGO, but perhaps she was too pushy because they forced an amakudari on the NGO to be her boss. When he failed to keep her under control, a second boss was put over her. She finally left to work for other organizations. I worked at the same NGO, and my duties included translation. I discovered the guys were getting five times the pay for their translations, and thought I would ask for a raise to a similar amount on a job the government had currently requested. Before I could do so, however, I found out they'd gone behind my back and hired a guy to do it and would not pay me for the work I'd already finished. The next time they asked me to translate, I got a promise of payment for whatever I completed at my office work rate (a raise was out of the question). They still went out in the meantime and found a guy to do it at the much higher rate. The sexism in the ministries is legendary, but not confined to them. At a women's college, the teachers became aware that hired male teachers were getting paid about twice what women were. One lady got a couple of friends--a highly qualified woman and a barely qualified man--to interview for placement. The guy was offered considerably more pay despite lower qualifications. And this was women--Japanese women--running the college. Past 25 they assume you are married and the job is your hobby, and if not, they think something is wrong with you.