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Paper short abstract

The paper aims to understand the circumstances Japanese women encounter upon their decisions of not belonging to a specific social grouping and what the novel forms of desire are that emerge out of their 'rebelling' against the traditional principles of uchi (home, in-group).

Paper long abstract

The recent decades have seen a great interest in the research on Japanese women's desire for the West, both romantically and professionally (Piller & Takahashi, 2006). It is needed to revisit the research in the current framework of gender-related studies and linguistic anthropology to assess whether Japanese women's existing imagery, as the consumers of Western products, still prevails or differential interpretations of their desire for English emerged. This paper comes from a critical ethnographic study based on the interviews and fieldwork observations of the desire of a group of young Japanese women, whose desires for English subvert the tendencies of the homogenizing social arrangements, depicted through the Japanese concept of ibasho. It aims to understand the circumstances these women encounter upon their decisions of not belonging to a specific social grouping, what their pursuit for 'ideal selves' (Dörnyei, 2020) entails, and what the novel forms of desire are that emerge out of their 'rebelling' against the traditional principles of uchi (home, in-group). The paper posits that the novel interpretations of desire can be divided into external, internal, and neutral, all of which indicate an assessment of Japanese women's identities as either fluid (Norton, 2013), in-the-making, or conflicted and plastic in that regard.

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Paper short abstract

Based on twenty interviews, this paper analyzes the careers of Japanese female high rank bureaucrats (obstacles, strategies, etc.). This paper also shows how some of them have used a window of opportunity to voice their demands to re-assess ministries' organizational norms and work-style practices.

Paper long abstract

Although it has been steadily increasing over the past 30 years, the feminization of the senior civil service remains relatively low (16% in 2018). Nevertheless, since the "Abenomics" and the Prime Minister's injunction to the bureaucracy to "firstly put its own house in order" (mazu kai yori hajimeyo) in 2014, the ministries have demonstrated significant efforts in this regard. Beyond the intention to feminize decision-making positions in order to take more into consideration women's needs in the production of public policies, the government tries to fulfil its exemplary duty towards the private sector.

Based on several reports published by ministries, on manually aggregated data and on twenty female bureaucrats' interviews (conducted between 2018 and 2020), this paper is an attempt to fill a gap in the literature that has so far focused - with an exception (Noble, 2019) - either on the situation of Japanese women in the private sector (Nemoto, 2016; Roberts, 2019), or in politics (e.g., Miura, Eto, 2014). After explaining some specificities of Japanese female bureaucrat's situation (examination-based recruitment, job security, good wage, low resignation rate, very high maternity and parental leave take-up rates, etc.), this paper analyzes the mechanisms that create obstacles in their career. In order to break this "glass ceiling" and to overcome the apparent incompatibility between their family life and the culture of total professional commitment in the bureaucracy, women seem to have essentially relied on individual strategies so far.

However, this paper also shows how some young female bureaucrats have recently used a political window of opportunity to voice their demands - shared by many young male bureaucrats - to re-assess the organizational norms and the work-style practices in the ministries. Although a "critical mass" (Dahlerup, 2006) has not yet been reached, we argue that the progressive feminization of the bureaucracy is pushing state administrations to reform themselves, thus demonstrating in a way, that the increase in the number of female bureaucrats has already brought some positive effects. Further research will be needed to assess whether and under what conditions these changes will be reflected in public policy.

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Paper short abstract

This paper presents some conclusions of ten years comparative research between Japanese and European companies on gender equality. Fundamental differences in top management's degree of commitment, effective HR practices, corporate culture towards gender equality are found to be crucial.

Paper long abstract

This paper presents some conclusions on the (un)development of gender equality in Japanese workplaces - on whether Japanese companies can transform to become more diverse, specifically gender equal, organisations. Although 35 years have passed since the enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, Japan still ranks 121st out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index 2020. Its economic gender gap ranking is 115th, and only 15% of senior and leadership positions are held by women. Why is it so difficult for Japan to achieve gender equality in employment? The author has conducted an international comparative study of women's career development in organisations over the last ten years using a qualitative approach of interviewing corporate managers and women, making comparisons with European countries including France, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK, to identify factors that can promote gender equality in organisations. Clearly, these European countries have developed employment and social welfare policies to promote women's participation in the employment market and gender equality in the society. But how about micro level policies and practices in companies? From the research the author has found several fundamental differences between the Japanese and European companies researched: 1) top management's degree of seriousness and commitment to recruit and retain talents regardless of gender; 2) development, investment and implementation of effective human resource management programmes such as succession plans, management training programmes and mentoring programmes; 3) creation of a gender-equal corporate culture sustained by both female and male employees and managers; and 4) a culture enabling people to voice their views in organisations. By presenting selected findings from field research in the above-mentioned countries, the paper argues that unless management attitudes towards gender equality change at all levels, Japanese companies will stay in a gender-undeveloped position in the international business community and be left behind not only in terms of gender but business performance itself.