GENDER ISSUES
In December 1996, the Japanese government
prepared the Plan for Gender Equality 2000,
and this led to the passing of the Basic Law
for a Gender-equal Society in 1999. The five
basic principles covered in this law are:
respect for the human rights of women and
men, consideration to social systems or
practices, joint participation in planning and
deciding policies, compatibility of activities in
family life and other activities, and
international cooperation.
Based on the provisions of the 1999 law,
the Basic Plan for Gender Equality was
approved by the Cabinet in December 2000.
This plan includes the following 11 priority
objectives: expand women’s participation in
Changing roles in a changing society
Toward a Gender-equal
Society
Web Japan
http://web-japan.org/
1 GENDER ISSUES
Career woman
(Photo courtesy of AFLO)
policy decision-making processes, review
social systems and practices and reform
awareness from a gender-equal perspective,
secure equal opportunities and treatment in
the field of employment, establish gender
equality in rural areas, support the efforts of
women and men to harmonize work with their
family and community life, develop conditions
that allow the elderly to live with peace of
mind, eliminate all forms of violence against
women, support life-long health for women,
respect women’s human rights in the media,
enrich education and learning which promote
gender equality and facilitate diversity of
choice, and contribute to the “equality,
development, and peace” of the global
community.
As a result of the central government
reorganization implemented in January 2001,
the Cabinet Office was created, and the
Council for Gender Equality and the Gender
Equality Bureau were placed within the
Cabinet Office. As one of the four major policy
councils in the Cabinet Office, the Council for
Gender Equality examines and discusses
basic policies and other important matters on
gender equality, monitors progress in
achieving gender equality, and surveys the
impact of government policy on gender
equality processes. The Gender Equality
Bureau serves as the secretariat of the
Council for Gender Equality. It is mandated
with the formulation and overall coordination
of plans for matters related to promoting the
formation of a gender-equal society, as well
as promoting the Basic Plan for Gender
Equality and formulating and implementing
plans for matters not falling under the
jurisdiction of any particular ministry.
Every year more voices can be heard
calling for women’s participation in government
and politics. Thus, the government has
adopted a policy of increasing the number of
female members on government councils and
commissions.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Law for
Men and Women, which came into effect in
April 1986, was revised in June 1997 in order
to speed up measures to counteract malefemale
discrimination. The revised provisions
implemented in 1999 prohibit gender-based
discrimination in job recruitment, employment,
allocation of specific posts, and job
advancement; they also make employers
responsible for the prevention of sexual
harassment. These revisions point mainly in
the direction of placing much clearer
responsibility for cases of gender-based
discrimination on employers.
Along with the revision of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Law for Men and
Women, the Labor Standards Law was
revised in such a way as to remove special
restrictions on work done by women during
holidays, late at night, and during other nonregular
working hours. This revision
underscored the idea that giving women
2 GENDER ISSUES
Women’s Working
Conditions
special treatment was a sort of gender-based
discrimination. Although labor conditions for
men and women have thus been equalized,
there are in fact numerous claims that women
for the most part are still responsible for doing
the housework and raising the children. The
disappearance of regulations that give women
special protection might therefore increase,
rather than alleviate, the social burdens
women bear.
In 2013, 49.3% of all persons employed in
all branches of industry in Japan were women.
In 1975, the corresponding percentage had
been 32.0%, after which time more and more
women found employment, particularly in
service and food industries, wholesale
and retail outlets, and electrical equipment
manufacturing.
More than a decade of economic
stagnation in Japan has led companies to cut
back on their hiring of new university
graduates, creating a very difficult
environment for young women, as well as
young men, looking for jobs. The employment
rate of university graduates was almost equal
with 93.2% of men and 94.7% of women
finding work in 2013.
However, the positive picture implied by
this small gap is complicated by the fact that
more female graduates take part-time jobs,
and the fact that while many enterprises hold
nonrestricted company-introduction meetings
and carry out other recruitment activities in
which female university students take part,
they may not, in actual practice, offer suitable
or equal employment opportunities for women.
The reality reveals that most women sense an
invisible barrier, yet to be breached. It is
hoped that the 1997 revision of the Equal
Opportunity Law for Men and Women will
continue to have a positive influence on this
situation.
Since the mid-1990s, the percentage of
male and female irregular or part-time
workers among all working income-earners
has grown considerably, from around 20.0%
in 1996 to about 37.1% in 2013. Deregulation
has accelerated this trend by greatly
increasing the range of job categories in
which companies can use temporary
“dispatched” workers in place of regular
employees.
younger than elementary-school age to take
up to five days off work a year to care for the
child when he/she is sick or injured.
In addition to the falling birthrate, the other
factor behind the aging of society is the rise
in average life expectancy. At 85.90 years for
women and 79.44 years for men (as of 2011),
Japan has the longest life expectancies in the
world. Women make up just under 60% of the
population aged 65 and up and more than
70% of the population aged 85 and up. To
help care for the growing population of elderly,
a long-term care insurance system was
implemented in 2000.
When care for elderly relatives is provided
in the home, the major burden is generally
borne by a woman, whether she works or not.
Addressing the needs of working people in
this situation, family care leave provisions
were added to the Child Care Law in 1995,
and it was renamed the Child and Family
Care Leave Law. This revision, which went
into full effect in 1999, enables workers to
leave their regular jobs for specified amounts
of time in response to a need to give special
care to a spouse, a parent, a preschool child,
or a spouse’s parent.
In Japan, the percentage of women who
continue their formal education after high
school is very high. In 2012, 54.8% of women
graduating from high school entered
universities or junior colleges, as compared
with 51.4% of men. A growing number of
women want to work on an equal basis with
men following graduation from an institution of
higher learning. As a consequence, the
concept of marriage as a woman’s life
objective is becoming less prevalent than in
the past. According to a study by the National
Institute of Population and Social Security
Research, unmarried men and women
consistently believe that marriage would
result in the restriction of their actions,
lifestyle, and relationships with friends, and
that it would also add the psychological
burdens involved in having to support a family.
Consequently, an increasing number of
Since 1980 the percentage of households
in which both the husband and wife are
employed has been gradually increasing.
Except for the years 1995 and 1996, since
1992 the number of such two-income
households has exceeded the number in
which only the man is employed, and the gap
between the two categories has been
widening in recent years.
The increase in the average age of marriage
for both men and women and the increase in
the number of people who are remaining
single are major factors behind birthrate
declines. Working women’s reluctance to
have children, due to the inadequacy of public
systems that would help make holding a job
and raising children compatible, is also a
contributing factor. A Ministry of Health,
Labour and Welfare study found that while
more than 70% of the mothers surveyed had
been working one year prior to the birth of
their first child, six months after the birth more
than 70% were not working. In addition to a
lack of desirable jobs, another barrier to
mothers who would like to work outside the
home is that men still participate relatively
little when it comes to helping with housework
and childcare. This can be partly attributed to
deeply rooted attitudes that housework and
childcare are “women’s work,” but another
part of the problem is that more and more
men—especially in the group of ages from 25
to 40 most likely to have small children—are
working longer and longer hours of overtime.
The government considers the problem of
a declining birthrate to require urgent
attention, and in 1991 it passed the Child
Care Law, which stipulated that employers
cannot refuse requests from either men or
women to take time off from regular work
schedules in order to care for children less
than one year of age.
Subsequently revised a number of times,
the law now permits persons satisfying certain
criteria to take childcare leave up until the
child is one and a half years old. There are
also provisions allowing parents of a child
3 GENDER ISSUES
An Aging Society
Young women college students
(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)
An Age of Fewer
Marriages
people are opting to marry late or remain
single throughout life.
In 1980, the percentage of those who
remained unmarried between the ages of 25
and 29 was 55.1% for men and 24.0% for
women. By 2005, these percentages had
surged to 72.6% for men and 59.9% for
women. A National Institute of Population and
Social Security Research report estimated
that among females who are less than 16
years old today, one in seven will remain
unmarried throughout life.
In 2010, the average age at first marriage
was 28.8 years for women and 30.5 years for
men. Another indication of the changes in
tradition taking place in Japan is a rising
divorce rate. The divorce rate per 1,000
population rose from 1.22 in 1980 to 1.87 in
2011.
Meanwhile, awareness among men is also
changing. In the past many men had been
career-focused to provide for their families,
and had left housework and childcare to their
wives, but now more and more men are
committed to spending time with their families.
Moreover, with changes in modes of
employment, double-income households are
the majority among working households in
which the head of the family is a company
employee and the like.
A trend has also arisen within society to
provide support for the increasing number of
men who, in line with such changes, are
helping out with household duties like cooking
and playing an active role in childcare. More
companies are encouraging male employees
to take childcare leave, and municipal
governments are offering parenting courses
to men as well on such topics as mental
preparation for childcare.
4 GENDER ISSUES
Toward a Work-life
Balance