The article begins by sharing a story explaining Japanese business culture and women. Yukaka Uchinaga was subject to this culture and used to hide in the women's restroom every night at around 8:00 pm because women weren't allowed to work more than 2 hours of overtime a day. She'd hide in the bathroom so that she could come out and continue working after the inspector had done a sweep of the building to make sure all the women had gone home for the day. This was the only way she could aspire to her career dreams. She's now highly decorated in leadership and two of the main are being on the boards for Benesse, a company looking to reach $1 billion in sales this decade, and Nissan.
Uchinaga talks about how Japan needs to diversify and better utilize the resources that are women in the workforce. Goldman and Sachs tend to only agree with her as the say better diversification could lead to up to a 15% increase in GDP. With a decreasing population creating fear that a slowing economy will be the result, Japan should be looking to all avenues to contribute to economic growth.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-21/women-on-top-can-snap-japan-company-culture-berlitz-says
Dallen Shakespear
This is very interesting, especially the estimation for potential growth by Goldman Sachs. A 15% increase is a lot. It's also always interesting for me to hear about such different policies for men and women. It's crazy to me that a country would do that, although I understand that perhaps Japan is a little more traditional than other Eastern countries. However, at least she was rewarded in the end through her successes. I guess all of her hard work paid off.
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ReplyDeleteI think this is a very interesting article. On one hand, it is kind of humerus to think of such a successful business woman hiding in the bathroom, but on the other hand there is nothing humerus about it. It is insulting that anyone would be treated differently based on sex or race, but it is also admirable that, in such a traditional country, she was ultimately recognized for her merits.
ReplyDeleteI cringed while reading this article, thinking that someone would be limited in terms of achieving their potential based on their gender. However, I'm glad to be reading articles like this because they bring attention to the large gender gaps that exist in corporations across the world. The article noted a study conducted by the Japanese ministry which found that 89 percent of respondents did not give a reason for why women were not being promoted within the company. I hope this statistic will change in coming years and companies will realize how large of a gender gap they really have.
ReplyDeleteKatie Robinson
Women in the Japanese workforce are becoming much more common, if not the norm, but it is interesting to see how the traditional "male-dominated" Japanese hierarchy is keeping women from deserved recognition and promotions. I watched a TED talk recently given by the COO of Facebook (who is also a woman) about how similar problems still exist for the advancement of women in the workplace, even in America. As Japan rapidly becomes more and more Westernized, it will be interesting to see how it handles the issue of women in the workplace in the near future.
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