What Does Japan Mean by Womenomics? - Bloomberg

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-19/what-is-womenomics-and-is-it-working-for-japan-quicktake 
> <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-19/what-is-womenomics-and-is-it-working-for-japan-quicktake>
>
> What Is Womenomics, and Is It Working for Japan?
>
> Shoko Oda <https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ASW2thiiOB0/shoko-oda>September 20, 2018, 3:00 AM GMT+9
> Photographer: Noriyuki Aida/Bloomberg
>
> quicktake
>
> By and
> Isabel Reynolds <https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AQzWi_n8H2k/isabel-reynolds>
> Prime Minister Shinzo Abe thinks he’s found an answer to Japan’s shrinking </news/terminal/P9MTI76K50XS> workforce: 
> The vast ranks of women who’ve been excluded from or held back in the workforce. Abe has outlined  
> <http://japan.kantei.go.jp/96_abe/statement/201304/19speech_e.html>goals to create a “Japan in which women shine.” 
> He’s pushing policies to encourage and enable women to work and have a family at the same. There’s even a catchy 
> phrase, "womenomics," part of the prime minister’s broader Abenomics plan hatched in 2014 to lift Japan out of 
> decades of economic stagnation. But while womenomics has seen some progress, it has yet to sparkle.
>
> 1. What exactly is womenomics?
>
> It’s the idea, closely associated with Abe but also discussed around the world, that the advancement of women and 
> economic development are necessarily linked. In Japan, as well as getting more women to work, Abe wants them to fill 
> 30 percent of leadership positions by 2020. He’s working to fix daycare shortages and encouraging workplaces to be 
> more accommodating, so mothers will feel more inclined to rejoin the workforce. There’s some urgency: Japan has the 
> world’s oldest and most rapidly shrinking population, with the 15-64 age group forecast 
> <http://www.ipss.go.jp/pp-zenkoku/e/zenkoku_e2017/pp_zenkoku2017e_gaiyou.html#e_zenkoku_II_A-2> to fall to 45 million 
> people in 2065 from 77 million in 2015.
>
> 2. Is it working?
>
> It’s slow progress. Female labor participation rate rose from 46.2 percent in 2012 to just short of 50 percent 
> percent in 2017. (That compares <https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/sl.tlf.cact.fe.zs> with 55 percent in Germany, 
> 56 percent in the U.S. and 61 percent in Canada.) Yet most new women workers in Japan are in relatively low paid, 
> part-time jobs. Although companies such as Toyota Motor Corp. are appointing female executives, change has been 
> glacial and far from uniform across industries. Only 4 percent 
> <https://www.bloomberg.co.jp/news/articles/2018-03-08/P578Y16JTSE801> of managerial positions are held by women (up 
> from 1 percent in 2012) compared with 9 percent in China and 17 percent in the U.S.Why Japan's Women Problem Is So 
> Hard to Fix
>
> 3. What’s the issue?
>
> An expectation that women should stay at home and be primary caregivers has held them back in workplaces the world 
> over, but in Japan that view has been deep-rooted. In many cases, women are trying to infiltrate an environment 
> that’s built around working long days often followed by bonding drinks in the evening. A 2016 poll found that 45 
> percent of men surveyed agreed with the idea that “women should stay at home.” Attitudes were recently highlighted 
> when it emerged that a medical school in Tokyo systematically excluded 
> <https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2018-08-27/deeper-economic-ills-at-root-of-japan-s-latest-sexism-scandal>
>  female students in favor of less qualified men. The furor prompted a national inquiry into admissions at medical 
> schools.
>
> 4. What about pay?
>
> Japan has the third-highest gender pay gap among the 36 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 
> countries <https://data.oecd.org/earnwage/gender-wage-gap.htm>, with women paid 24.5 percent less than men last year, 
> down from 26.6 percent in 2013. South Korea has the highest (34.6 percent) while Luxembourg’s is lowest (3.4 percent).
>
> Working for Less
>
> In Japan, women's salaries trail men's by the most among G-7 nations
> Source: OECD (Japan, U.S. data for 2017; France 2014; others 2016)
> 5. How about in politics?
>
> Japan has almost the lowest female representation anywhere. Ten percent of members of the lower house are women, 
> ranking Japan <http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm> 158th globally. Of 20 positions in the cabinet, two are 
> women. In May, both houses of parliament unanimously passed a bill requiring political parties to aim "as far as 
> possible" to field equal numbers of male and female candidates.
>
> 6. What else can be done?
>
> Abe has been criticized for not going far enough 
> <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-11/death-by-overwork-casts-shadow-over-tokyo-olympics-construction> 
> and he has shown little indication of a course correction. There have been calls for legally binding 
> <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-04/hiring-quotas-seen-as-one-option-to-bolster-womenomics-in-japan> 
> quotas to speed along a process that most observers expect to be long but ultimately fruitful. Recent estimates 
> suggest that improving economic gender parity could add $550 billion to Japan’s gross domestic product.
>
> The Reference Shelf
>
> Japan’s unforgiving work culture 
> <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-11/death-by-overwork-casts-shadow-over-tokyo-olympics-construction>.
> When 100 percent equals 80 percent: The medical school 
> <https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2018-08-27/deeper-economic-ills-at-root-of-japan-s-latest-sexism-scandal>
>  scandal.
> A QuickTake on shrinking Japan <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/quicktake/japan-s-shrinking-population>.
> Cracking 
> <https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2018-04-02/abe-challenger-trains-women-to-crack-male-heavy-japan-parliament>
>  Japan’s glass ceiling.
> A Goldman Sachs report on womenomics <https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/pages/womenomics4.0.html>.
> Japan’s turns #MeToo into #WeToo 
> <https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2018-05-09/-metoo-becomes-wetoo-in-victim-blaming-japan>.
> Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.
> LEARN MORE <https://bloom.bg/dg-ws-core-bcom-a1>
> UP NEXT
>
> China-U.S. Tariff War Will Escalate, Says Ex-Trade Negotiator
>
>  <https://www.bloomberg.com/live>


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