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- Convenor:
-
Naoko Oki
(Sugiyama Jogakuen University)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Karen Shire
(University Duisburg-Essen)
- Discussant:
-
Annette Schad-Seifert
(Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)
- Section:
- Economics, Business and Political Economy
- Sessions:
- Thursday 26 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
In 2010 the Japanese government announced to increase women in leadership positions in all areas to 30 percent by 2020; a goal that has clearly not been attained, especially within politics and the economy. The panel examines obstacles to gender equality in Japan and initiatives to overcome them.
Long Abstract:
The Act concerning Promotion of Women's Career Activities was enacted in 2015. This law requires firms with over 300 (over 100 after 2022) employees to set public numerical targets for the employment of women and a percentage of women's promotion to managerial positions. The Japanese government also passed Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field, a nonbinding law in 2018, which calls for political parties and groups to strive for achieving equality "as much as possible" in terms of the number of male and female candidates in both national and local elections. According to these acts, policies for the 'promotion of advancement and participation of women (josei katsuyaku suishin)' aim to increase female participation and advancement in workplaces and politics, for example by multiplying female leaders in male-dominated areas, such as executive boards of companies and the Diet and local assemblies. However, there is still a huge gender gap in leadership positions in Japan. For example, Japan is ranked 121st among 153 countries, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020, which benchmarks the countries on their progress towards gender parity across economic, political, educational, and health related fields. Japan's poor ranking was particularly due to extremely low scores of female participation in the decision making level within politics and the economy.
The purpose of this panel is to critically review traditional discussions on promotion of women's participation in leadership positions and analyze factors that promote and hinder women's leadership in Japan through case studies. The following questions will be addressed: Which factors could strengthen the increase in female leaders, especially in traditionally male-dominated areas such as politics and the business sector? How could women be trained to become leaders? In which ways is female leadership different from male leadership, especially when social organizations are concerned that have the objective to empower their female members? Finally, the panel considers how women leaders implement gender mainstreaming in all policy-making processes of organizations.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 26 August, 2021, -Mijin Kim (Daito Bunka University) Kaoru Kanai (Saitama University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the process of leadership development for women in the Japanese labor union. Through comparative analysis with the Korean case, it will explore the conditions under which labor unions can develop women leaders capable of requesting and applying gender equality in union practices.
Paper long abstract:
To revitalize labor movements and achieve gender equality, it is essential that women attain positions of leadership within unions. Since 2013, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO) has taken proactive steps to promote diversity in women's leadership, such as setting a goal to achieve a 30 percent quota of women in union executive positions by 2020. However, there still exists a gender gap. Last year, Women's representation in the union executive was only 14 percent and women continue to be underrepresented in positions of leadership despite increasing female participation rates in union membership. Why were labor unions in Japan unable to achieve '202030'?
To answer this question, this paper examines the process of leadership development for women in Japan based on the empowerment approach. By adopting the concept of "gender needs" it will investigate the current process of leadership development in Japanese labor unions and look for means how to encourage women to overcome the existing power imbalance between men and women. In contrast to the situation in Japan, the Korean Women's Trade Union (KWTU) has made use of the empowerment approach since its establishment in 1999 and has been able to train union leaders to be able to seek strategic gender needs. Through comparative case studies, this paper will explore the conditions under which labor unions can develop women leaders capable of requesting strategic gender needs and applying these needs to their union practices. Its findings suggest that the empowerment approach will not only contribute to the increase in women leaders to the goal of 30 percent, but will help to strengthen gender mainstreaming at all policy-making processes of labor unions.
Naoko Oki (Sugiyama Jogakuen University)
Paper short abstract:
At the Local Elections in 2019, the first nation-wide ones after Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in Politics, the proportion of women recruited by political parties, almost leveled off. This paper discusses how women become candidates inside/outside political parties in Japanese local elections.
Paper long abstract:
Women in political leadership positions are underrepresented both at the national and local levels in Japan, though the government has adopted measures, which aim to promote gender equality in a wide range of fields including politics. The Third Basic Plan for Gender Equality in 2015 has set numerical targets for women's participation in the national political fields with a 30 percent quota for election candidates of members of the Lower and Upper Houses by 2020. The Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field in 2018 (Gender Equality Act 2018) requires political parties to strive to allocate male and female candidates for elections of the members of the Diet and local assemblies. However, the percentage of female candidates for the latest General Election of the Lower House and the Unified Local Election is only 17.7 percent and 16.6 percent respectively. This paper is asking for the reasons why so few women could be recruited as candidates for the national and local elections. It particularly focuses on the Unified Local Elections in 2019, which were held as the first nation-wide ones after Gender Equality Act 2018. At the local assembly membership elections, the percentage of women recruited by major political parties, with a few exceptions, almost leveled off, though the number of female candidates increased at all levels. On the other hand, women's groups and female local politicians that empower women to be candidates through seminars or training programs are more active. These women's movements have led women to run successfully in the districts where there had been no or few women elected before. This paper is also looking for ways how new political schools for women are fostering women in leadership positions in local politics and differences between the new and traditional types of political schools for women.
Eriko Hamada (Rikkyo University)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation will answer these two questions: (1) Who experiences, what kind of harassment during job-hunting in Japan? (2) How is it dealt with? Through case studies of sexual harassment experienced by jobseekers, it will assess how such harassment hinders women's leadership in the workplace.
Paper long abstract:
In June 2019, the ILO (International Labour Organization) adopted a new Convention and Recommendation on Violence and Harassment in the Workplace. The Convention defines violence and harassment as "a range of unacceptable behaviors and practices that result in, or are likely to result in physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm, and includes gender-based violence and harassment." The Convention protects all persons working irrespective of their contractual status, thus including not only employees, but also interns, volunteers, jobseekers and freelance workers. Nations that ratify the Convention are required to prohibit violence and harassment by law and enforce employers to take measures to prevent such acts.
Japan voted to pass the Convention, however, this was only possible due to the labor representative and the government representative which holds two votes for voting in favor. The business representative abstained. Although Japan passed a law in May 2019 as a pre-step to passing the Convention by requesting companies to set up sections to deal with power harassment, it still lacks appropriate and comprehensive domestic legal measures to tackle the issue. Japan has yet to clearly spell out what constitutes harassment in the workplace or define penalties against offenders. Sexual harassment has become to be conceptualized as a form of gender-based violence, but Japan is slow in giving a precise definition and taking firm actions. Ambiguity also remains in the definition of "workplace" and "worker".
Those most vulnerable to such harassment are jobseekers, especially students seeking for their first job upon graduation. They often fall in the gray areas of harassment protection because they are not technically "workers" working in a "workplace" in the Japanese context. This presentation will aim to answer the following questions. In what ways do such harassment act as barriers and hurdles for newly graduates? How is gender-based harassment defined and dealt with for job-hunting students in Japan? By exploring recent ad hoc policy measures and counter-movements, this presentation will assess how such harassment act as gender-based barriers towards job-hunting students, impede a gender-equal workplace, and hinder women's leadership in the workplace.