JAPAN-WOMENOMICS 2
(GUTTMAN/STOBART) PBS NHWE -- NOV. 5, 2017
TODAY, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP STARTS HIS ASIA
TRIP IN JAPAN, WHERE HE WILL MEET PRIME MINISTER SHINZO ABE. WHEN ABE’S RULING
COALITION WON TWO-THIRDS OF THE SEATS IN JAPAN’S PARLIAMENT LAST MONTH, IT SET
ABE ON PACE TO BECOME JAPAN’S LONGEST-SERVING PRIME MINISTER SINCE WORLD WAR
TWO. ONE OF HIS TOP ECONOMIC GOALS HAS BEEN TO
EXPAND JAPAN’S WORKFORCE AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY BY GETTING MORE WOMEN
INTO THE WORKFORCE. THE POLICY IS CALLED “WOMENOMICS.” IN TONIGHT’S SIGNATURE
SEGMENT, NEWSHOUR WEEKEND SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT AMY GUTTMAN REPORTS FROM TOKYO
ON ABE’S FIGHT AGAINST DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS AND THE CULTURAL OBSTACLES IT’S
NEEDED TO OVERCOME.
AMY GUTTMAN: With Japan’s population declining by 300-thousand people last
year, its workforce continues to shrink. Japan has virtually no immigrants
working their way up the economic ladder to fill open jobs. And with more than
a quarter of its people over 65-years-old, Japan is aging faster than any other
industrialized nation. When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office five years
ago, he recognized the economic impact of these factors and turned to an
underutilized section of Japanese society for a fix: bringing more women into
the workplace.
SHINZO ABE: “A society where all women who can challenge their dreams at any
time or place, we will continue to introduce policies for women by 2020.”
AMY GUTTMAN: Womenomics is the name for Abe’s
policy to close Japan’s gender gap and fuel the economy with programs giving
women more opportunities to work and be promoted. Member of Parliament Yunoki Michiyoshi has supported Womenomics. He says female empowerment and economic
revitalization go hand in hand.
YUNOKI MICHIYOSHI: There are male politicians who are against Womenomics
and who hate the idea of female empowerment. But if you think about economics.
If you think about Japan's fiscal future, we need taxes from working women.
AMY GUTTMAN: Before Womenomics began, more than half
of Japanese women worked outside the home. But a majority of them worked only
part-time, in mostly low skilled and low paying jobs. And only 38 percent of
Japanese women returned to part-time or full-time work after having children.
Abe’s goals included enticing more mothers back to work and tripling the number
of women in management roles, from less than 10 percent in 2012 to 30 percent
by 2020. But Womenomics has had its critics, some
from inside Abe’s own conservative party. Member of Parliament Shoji Nishida
doesn’t believe the plan is necessary.
SHOJI NISHIDA: We have to find a solution, not just quotas. It could bankrupt
companies if they are obliged by the government to hire a mandatory number of
women in management. The consequence will be a disaster. Either the company
will be crushed from the financial burden, or you will have women just given
the title.
AMY GUTTMAN: How do you propose encouraging them to promote more women?
SHOJI NISHIDA: I don’t believe there is complete gender equality. 50-50 Women
and men in companies, is this a good result? I don’t think so.
AMY GUTTMAN: One step Abe has taken to make full time work more attractive to
mothers is to reduce Japan’s national day care shortage. The government has
allocated funds for 500-thousand more slots in new daycare centers. Campaigning
for re-election last month, Abe promised to go further, providing free daycare and kindergarten for children up to age
5. Shiseido, Japan’s largest cosmetics company,
offers a model for what Abe wants to achieve. Its on site daycare serves a workforce that’s 80 percent
female, and it hit its own target of seeing 30 percent of its managers be
women. Emi Watanabe is one of them. A married mother of two in Tokyo, Watanabe
has worked for Shiseido since graduating college. She says the daycare and the
company's policy of paid family leave saved her career.
EMI WATANABE: I've been able to balance work and child-rearing. I had my first
baby right after I got married. In Shiseido, not only is the parental leave
system available, it's possible, for sure, to come back to the workplace.
AMY GUTTMAN: At Shiseido, the company says 96 percent of working mothers do
come back to their jobs.
EMI WATANABE: The company truly believes in the capability of women and
appreciates the importance of motivating employees so they can create more
innovation. And this is conducive to the sustainable growth and development of
Shiseido.
AMY GUTTMAN: To help other companies move in Shiseido's direction, Abe pushed
Japan’s Parliament to make the national parental leave law more generous. It
now requires employers to offer parents a year of paid leave for a newborn --
six months at two-thirds of their salary and six months at half their salary.
But Womenomics runs contrary to some long-held
cultural norms. One of them is “Matahara,” or
“maternity harassment.” Half of Japanese working women say they’ve experienced
it. Sayaka Osakabe says when she became pregnant
three years ago, she was afraid to tell her bosses. She was working full-time
in advertising for a Tokyo media company.
SAYAKA OSAKABE: It's normal for full-time, working women, once they get pregnant,
to quit and become a full time housewife. It's so accepted and common, there's
even a phrase people use, they say, ‘happy retirement.’
AMY GUTTMAN: Her boss even showed up at her home to encourage her to retire.
SAYAKA OSAKABE: My male bosses told me to choose my career or my baby. If I
stayed, they said, I should give up my baby.
AMY GUTTMAN: Osakabe intended to work
through her pregnancy. But she quit, because of what she calls a hostile work
environment. Osakabe later sued her former employer
and won a court judgment. Her case and another like it caught the attention of
Prime Minister Abe, who pushed Parliament to strengthen anti-discrimination
laws. Japanese companies are now required to educate employees and managers
about maternity harassment. However, Osakabe says,
the law is toothless, because there are no penalties for violations. She’s
started an organization actually called “Matahara” to
advise companies how to prevent workplace discrimination and to support women
who’ve experienced it.
SAYAKA OSAKABE: For the women of Japan today, the choices are: 100 percent full
time housewife, or you can be a career woman, dedicating your whole life, no
husband, no children, only to your career. The third choice is you can be a
working mom as a part-timer. I’m fighting to help make it better for the next
generation.
AMY GUTTMAN: Another long-held cultural norm that’s an obstacle to Womenomics is “karoshi,” or
“death by overwork.” In Japan, 18 hour workdays are common. The prospect of
extremely long days has deterred many mothers from returning to the workplace.
Akira Matsumoto, the CEO of Japanese snack food manufacturer Calbee, has tried to curb that habit.
AKIRA MATSUMOTO: They are working too long. That's why our company's working style
is so flexible now.
AMY GUTTMAN: Calbee’s flex time policy encourages
employees to work fewer hours or to work from home. The company also pays for
childcare when mothers first return to work. Matsumoto says Calbee has also quadrupled its percentage of female
managers from 6 to 24 percent and is on pace to reach Abe’s goal of 30 percent.
AKIRA MATSUMOTO: Just men can not manage this company.
Without change, we cannot survive.
AMY GUTTMAN: Do you ever hear negative feedback or resistance from men?
AKIRA MATSUMOTO: Yes of course.
AMY GUTTMAN: And your response is?
AKIRA MATSUMOTO: If you don't like this, you can leave the company. There are many
companies outside this building. You can go, but no one has left the company so
far.
AMY GUTTMAN: “What's new about Womenomics is that
some companies are now recognizing that supporting women in the workplace means
creating policies for men.”
AMY GUTTMAN: Across Japan, only three percent of working fathers take paternity
leave. At Taisei, one of Japan’s largest and oldest construction companies,
that norm is being challenged with mixed results. Tetsuya Shioiri
is the company’s human resources director. He says Taisei encourages working
fathers to take time off for a newborn, and most actually do. However, after
returning to work, the fathers miss time with their families, because of “karoshi.”
TETSUYA SHIOIRI: It's a traditional mindset, male mindset, makes them feel ashamed
to leave early. I hope working shorter hours will become more popular.
AMY GUTTMAN: Construction site manager Aya Fujikawa
is an example of how Prime Minister Abe’s plan could be successful in the long
term. She says Taisei’s family leave and flextime policies enabled her to stay
on the job through her second pregnancy. Her husband also works for the company
and spends more hours than she does at home taking care of their first child.
AYA FUJIKAWA: My husband drops off and picks up my child, because I leave for
work while my son is sleeping and return home after he has gone to bed. My husband
is responsible for the child care, bathing, feeding, and daily routine.
AMY GUTTMAN: How unusual is your home life?
AYA FUJIKAWA: At my company and within the whole of Japanese society, our
situation is very much in the minority. My friends are very surprised. They
admire me.
AMY GUTTMAN: Taisei also conducts workshops for employees and their spouses to
learn to share household chores and childcare duties.
TETSUYA SHIOIRI: Our company is in desperate need to recruit women. We need
talented people regardless of gender. Supporting women is not enough. We need
to support those around them.
AMY GUTTMAN: Since Womenomics began, the percentage
of Japanese women working outside the home has grown from 61 to 66 percent:
that’s a million more women. And the percentage of working mothers returning to
work has risen from 38 to 53 percent, compared to 71 percent in the U.S. But
Prime Minister Abe has backtracked considerably on the goal of tripling the
percentage of women in management positions from 10 to 30 percent. Today, that
number has increased modestly to 13 percent and Abe now hopes to boost it to 15
percent by 2021.
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|
TIMECODE |
LOWER
THIRD |
1 |
00:39 |
SEPTEMBER
12, 2014 |
2 |
1:09 |
YUNOKI
MICHIYOSHI MEMBER
OF PARLIAMENT, JAPAN |
3 |
2:00 |
SHOJI
NISHIDA MEMBER
OF PARLIAMENT, JAPAN |
4 |
3:46 |
EMI
WATANABE SHISEIDO |
5 |
5:45 |
SAYAKA OSAKABE MATAHARA NET |
6 |
7:15 |
TOKYO AMY GUTTMAN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |
7 |
8:55 |
TETSUYA SHIOIRI TAISEI |