Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenor:
-
Mari Osawa
(The University of Tokyo)
Send message to Convenor
- Stream:
- Economics, Business and Political Economy
- Location:
- Torre B, Piso 3, T11
- Sessions:
- Thursday 31 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
Abewomanomics is one of the most controversial of the structural reforms. This panel will evaluate progress within three areas of the gendered Japanese political economy: administrative reforms and gender policy, representation of women in local political leadership and women in private enterprise.
Long Abstract:
Abewomanomics is one of the most controversial of the structural reforms. The results have been mixed, and this panel will attempt to determine the inroads and well as set-backs made in the policies proposed for advancing women's participation. Elevating gender equality to a central part of the Prime Minister's platform has won the issue wide recognition, but in the process the role of the gender equality office and of women leading the drive for more equality have been weakened. In addition to examining Cabinet level capacities for achieving gender equality, this panel will consider gains made at the local level of politics and in the corporate world, where targets for female leadership have been instituted. The panel includes three papers with original empirical research about central-level administrative capacities, local level women's leadership, and the effect of Abewomanomics on advancement of women in the financial sector. The research shows that Abewomanomics has set-back the time-line on many policies, and the advances made may be more the result of longer-term efforts to improve gender balance in political and economic leadership.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 31 August, 2017, -Naoko Oki (Sugiyama Jogakuen University)
Paper short abstract:
The presence of female officeholders of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has increased since the 2000s in local assemblies. This paper discusses how the sharp increase in LDP's women in local assemblies promotes women's participation in local politics in Japan.
Paper long abstract:
Traditionally, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has fallen behind other national parties about the promotion of women's participation in politics. However, after Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) President Shinzo Abe became Prime Minister again in December 2012, the LDP's manifesto at the Diet member elections pronounces that the party fulfills the target of increasing the percentage of managerial posts held by women in all fields in the society including politics and economics to 30% by 2020, and also that it promotes women's participation in politics more strongly than ever. Actually, in the Diet and local assemblies the ratio of female officeholders of the LDP has increased since the 2000s. Especially, the number of LDP's female officeholders increased dramatically in the Nation-wide Local Election in 2011 and 2015. This paper discusses how the sharp increase in LDP's women in local assemblies promotes women's participation in local politics in Japan by shedding light on the candidate selection policy and recruitment system of political parties.
Kaoru Kanai (Saitama University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper aims at analysing whether the Abe government's push for the promotion of women has exerted any effects on corporate employment practice. It takes Japanese life insurance companies as a case, for the life insurance companies have been traditionally a major employer of women in Japan.
Paper long abstract:
The percentage of managerial positions held by women in Japan is 11 percent, placing Japan among the lowest group countries in the OECD. The Japanese government has announced a goal of increasing this percentage to 30 percent by 2020. To achieve this goal, the Act concerning Promotion of Women's Career Activities (PWCA) was enacted in 2015. The law requires businesses with over 300 employees to set public numerical targets for the employment of women and a percentage of women's promotion to managerial positions.
This paper aims at analysing whether the Abe government's push for the promotion of women has exerted any effects on corporate employment practice regarding women's employment and promotion. It takes Japanese life insurance companies as a test case, for the life insurance companies have been traditionally a major employer of women in Japan. Women comprise more than 90% of sales staff in life insurance industry and more than 50% of clerical staff. However the ratio of women's managerial position is very low (the lowest company is 3.8%, the highest is 29%) due to the gender based personnel management system. How do life insurance companies respond to the enactment of the PWCA by which all companies now must set numerical targets for the percentage of women's promotion to managerial positions?
This paper shows that companies attempt to meet the targets of women's promotion by creating new 'nominal' managerial positions rather than incorporating women into male career patterns. The implication of this kind of diversification of promotion patterns is not yet clear, but this paper points out that it might bring about a change in rigid gendered promotion and career patterns in Japanese companies as an unintended outcome.
Ki-young Shin (Ochanomizu University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper evaluates Abenomics with a focus on the impact on policy machinery for gender equality, namely Gender Equality Bureau. It analyzes whether Abenomics has empowered Gender Equality Bureau with more budget and manpower or simply shifted limited resources from other equality policies.
Paper long abstract:
One of the stunning puzzles in Japan from the comparative perspective is duration of a low level of women in leadership and managerial positions. While promotion of women in managerial and leadership positions in economy and politics is a longtime task in Japan, and the Basic Plans for Gender Equal Society have proposed adoption of affirmative actions to tackle this problem, no effective public policies have been taken until the Abe government. The Abe government adopted the Act Concerning Promotion of Women's Career Activities in 2015 in order to realize a 30 % target of women's promotion to leadership positions by 2020. Yet it is counterintuitive that a conservative politician such as Abe who has been known as a strong opponent to gender equality policies in the mid 2000s took a policy initiative to promote women into leadership positions.
Studies are also divided in evaluations on Abe's Womanomics. Some argue that Abe's policies for Women-Shining Society are neo-liberal economic policy that regards women simply as labor-force for boosting economic development while keeping current gender hierarchy and gender norms intact. Others evaluate more positively, if cautiously, that Abe's Womanomics is de-facto an affirmative action policy that would lead to promote women's status.
This paper, too, attempts to evaluate Abe's Womanomics, yet from a slightly different angle. It focuses on the policy machinery for Abe's Womanomics, namely Gender Equality Bureau in Cabinet Office. It has been repeatedly pointed out that Gender Equality Bureau in Japan lacked resources and authority to monitor and implement cabinet-wide gender equality policies in Japan. How did "Women-Shining Society" that became a primary policy concern for the Abe administration impact on Gender Equality Bureau as the policy machinery to promote women's promotion and gender equality? Has the Bureau been empowered with more budget and manpower or simply overshadowed by Women-Shining Society policies? This paper analyzes the changes in budget, organization, personnel, and policy priority of Gender Equality Bureau to answer those questions.